President Obama touted whistleblower protections as a priority on the campaign trail in 2008, but the administration has deemed it as a political liability, erasing a website outlining campaign promises.
Previously, the website Change.gov detailed the Obama administration’s agenda, including a list of promises the President made while campaigning. Though the site was established in 2008 as the “Obama-Biden Transition Project,” visitors could still peruse Obama’s promises months and years after his transition into office was complete. Additionally, Change.gov served as an effective way for Obama’s supporters and dissenters to see exactly which campaign promises the President and his administration actually followed through on.
But, according to The Sunlight Foundation, the last time content was available on Change.gov —beyond the main splash’s link to the White House’s website — was June 8, two days after National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed information about a surveillance program to The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald. Now, the site can no longer be found.
It can, however, still be viewed through the Wayback Archive.
As The Sunlight Foundation reported, one of the promises listed on the President’s transition site included a promise to protect whistleblowers, listed as part of its ethics agenda.
“Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process,” the site stated.
But as the President’s second term was met with a bevy of scandals — some brought to light by whistleblowers — protecting such “watchdogs” is no longer just a broken promise, but a ghost of the past.
According to POLITICO, the White House has not commented on the site’s disappearance.
Protecting whistleblowers isn’t the only promise Obama has failed to keep — and subsequently fallen into Internet oblivion. The President vowed to create tougher rules for lobbyists and make his White House more transparent, shining “the light on Washington lobbying.” According to Politifact, that promise has been broken, along with 22 percent of his other ones.
