Editors note: Sunshine Week column by John J. Glisch, editorial page editor of Florida Today. For use Monday, March 17 and thereafter.

As bad as Nixon

Bush takes obsession with secrecy to dangerous level

By John J. Glisch

Florida Today Editorial Page Editor

Richard Nixon was known for his paranoia and obsession with secrecy, faults so extreme they led to Watergate, a constitutional crisis and his downfall.

But Nixon has nothing on President Bush, who has taken secrecy to new levels since 9-11 in a dangerous abuse of power that mocks the Founding Fathers promise of open government serving the people.

His record and how it has damaged our democracy is worth talking about today as part of Sunshine Week when newspapers nationwide focus attention on the publics right to know what their government is doing.

That fundamental American principle has been ignored by Bush, who has drilled secrecy into his administrations DNA, telling you to shut up and mind your own business on everything from national security to how your tax dollars were spent after the 2004 hurricanes.

The Nixon comparison comes from Charles Davis, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition who teaches journalism at the University of Missouri.

All presidents keep secrets but the darkness so permeates the Bush White House that Davis calls it death of a 1,000 cuts, the likes of which havent been seen since Nixons infamous day.

The examples are legion:

Secret intelligence that was deeply flawed and manipulated, leading to the Iraq war.

Secret prisons, secret torture, secret trials and secret wiretaps.

A host of scientific information suppressed because the facts dont mesh with the administrations rigid ideology, including the mounting threat from global warming, proof that abstinence-only sex education is a failure and worsening dangers to public health from second-hand smoke.

Anything that doesnt fit into the political appointees ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried, Bushs former Surgeon General Richard Carmona told Congress in damning testimony last summer.

Nothing is exempt.

For instance, FLORIDA TODAY and its three sister Gannett newspapers in Florida, along with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, had to use the Freedom of Information Act to obtain documents from FEMA about how it misspent millions of dollars after the 2004 hurricanes tore through Florida.

But it took a legal fight after FEMA refused to hand over the material. In a strongly worded opinion, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals said the documents were public records and ordered them released.

A decade ago, that information would have unquestionably been released in 10 minutes. But FEMA was willing to litigate to the death that the money they handed out was not public record, Davis says.

And on it goes in the waning months of Bushs tenure as the administration continues invoking 9-11 as a rationale for its information blackout, attacking anyone who challenges them by saying scrutiny of government is somehow unpatriotic, Davis says.

In truth, its the opposite.

Mistrust of power was at the heart of our countrys birth and why Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Madison and others created a system of check and balances and with it the implicit understanding that open government was essential to the survival of the republic.

Ignorance certainly is not bliss, Davis says. (Seeking information) is not only what American newspapers are supposed to be doing but what the public is supposed to be doing. Its not a monarchy. Its not rah-rah for whoevers in power but to deeply mistrust whoever is in power and demand transparency.

So dont drink the Kool-Aid. And fight for open government at every turn.

John J. Glisch is the editorial page editor at Florida Today. Contact him at (321) 242-3968 or jglisch@floridatoday.com

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