Former NBC evening news anchor Tom Brokaw got it exactly right when he assessed Attorney General Eric Holder’s invitation to Washington media chiefs for an off-the-record meeting. Said Brokaw: “If it’s worth talking about, let’s put it on the record. If we need to know about it, let’s put it in the sunshine.” Despite glittering promises of openness in government by Holder and the man in the Oval Office whose interests he protects, the Obama era has displayed an unprecedented lack of transparency epitomized in the attorney general’s request for the off-the-record meeting. Neither Obama nor Holder appear to understand that transparency is the essential preface to credibility.

But credibility is precisely what the president and his attorney general lack on the issue to be discussed at the requested meeting. Holder’s request was tendered as part and parcel of the president’s attempt to get his administration ahead of the three scandals that have suddenly erupted in his second term. Officially at least, Holder wants to discuss the Department of Justice’s guidelines for how the government treats journalists seeking information for sensitive national security stories.