EDITORIAL: Obama Fails On Openness
Advocate (excerpt)

Government transparency, like Mom and apple pie, is one of those things that almost every politician claims to love. But the real test of a public figure’s devotion to transparency comes in how he and his subordinates practice what they preach.

On that score, President Barack Obama and his administration have not lived up to Obama’s promise as a presidential candidate that he would bring more transparency to the presidency. A recent review by The Associated Press found that after one year in office, the Obama administration is blocking even more requests for access to federal records than President George W. Bush did during his final full budget year.

The federal Freedom of Information Act gives citizens access to a wide range of federal records. But federal officials can cite an exemption and withhold records if they can argue that the records involve the “deliberative process” — the process by which officials internally debate how a policy decision is made. With few exceptions, such as matters of national security, the deliberations of government should be open to public view. That’s why we’ve argued against the idea of a broad deliberative-process exemption for access to public records.