President Obama’s White House has distinguished itself from previous administrations by setting the all-time record this year for “denying and censoring government files,” according to a new analysis from the Associated Press.
“The government took longer to turn over files when it provided any, said more regularly that it couldn’t find documents, and refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy,” AP said. “It also acknowledged in nearly 1 in 3 cases that its initial decisions to withhold or censor records were improper under the law — but only when it was challenged.”
“Its backlog of unanswered requests at year’s end grew remarkably by 55 percent to more than 200,000,” the report said. “It also cut by 375, or about 9 percent, the number of full-time employees across government paid to look for records. That was the fewest number of employees working on the issue in five years.”
The AP’s analysis comes just two years after Obama said in 2013 that his is “the most transparent administration in history.”
The analysis is based on official figures released Tuesday by the federal government.
“The government responded to 647,142 [Freedom of Information Act] requests, a 4 percent decrease over the previous year. It more than ever censored materials it turned over or fully denied access to them, in 250,581 cases or 39 percent of all requests,” AP reported.
“Sometimes, the government censored only a few words or an employee’s phone number, but other times it completely marked out nearly every paragraph on pages. On 215,584 other occasions, the government said it couldn’t find records, a person refused to pay for copies or the government determined the request to be unreasonable or improper,” it said.
The Obama administration, on the other hand, finds its own behavior to be worthy of praise.
“We actually do have a lot to brag about,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
The White House “routinely excludes from its assessment instances when it couldn’t find records, a person refused to pay for copies or the request was determined to be improper under the law, and said under this calculation it released all or parts of records in 91 percent of requests,” AP’s Ted Bridis writes.
Questions regarding government transparency and the press have long dogged the Obama White House. In 2013 the White House was revealed to have been spying on the Associated Press itself.
“[A]t this moment, although the administration may still wind up as one of the better ones of the sunshine era, it may not serve as the model for the most transparent administration yet to come,” the Washington Post reported in article that asks whether “Obama delivered the ‘most transparent’ administration in history.”
An AP spokesperson directed the Washington Examiner to a column written by AP CEO Gary Pruitt, titled “Government undermining ‘right to know’ laws.”
“Government works better when the people who put it in office and pay for it with their taxes have an unobstructed view of what it is doing,” Pruitt said in his column, which was published last week. “And that is why it is vital that we all fight every attempt, from federal foot-dragging to outrageous photocopying bills, to hide the public’s information behind a big, padlocked door. We need to let the sun shine in.”
