The White House has touted the easy availability of President Barack Obama’s public schedule as part of his administration’s “commitment to open government.”
But there’s a lot the White House keeps off its regular rundown of the president’s day.
Obama has pledged to run the most transparent administration in history, yet the published schedule offers only a narrow window into his activities, a POLITICO review found.
There are tough-to-fathom omissions like leaving off a reception for AIDS activists and researchers that had already been announced on a White House blog. And seemingly deliberate ones, such as the absence of several meetings with House Speaker John Boehner at the height of debt ceiling negotiations. Others seem designed to downplay inconvenient or politically awkward events, such as meetings about the Sudan with actor George Clooney, a major contributor and fundraiser for the president.
A review of more than 4,000 photos posted to Flickr by official White House photographers since Obama took office in 2009 found about one-third of the events depicted were never on his public schedule. And, of course, many other unannounced events never make it to the Flickr feed at all.
Read more at Politico
