Rieder: Fighting back against government secrecy

CHICAGO — It's come to this.

A transportation reporter for the Associated Press was told by federal government sources that they would be fired if they provided information to the journalist, AP Washington Bureau Chief Sally Buzbee says.

Not for turning over classified information a la Edward Snowden. Not for giving up the innermost secrets of the CIA or the NSA.

For furnishing information about the oh-so-sensitive world of transportation.

It's been clear for some time that the Obama administration has a terrible record when it comes to transparency. (Never mind that candidate Barack Obama vowed his would be the most transparent administration ever.)

But a couple of panel discussions Wednesday at the joint convention of the American Society of News Editors and Associated Press Media Editors suggest things are worse than we knew and doing nothing but getting more awful.

Equally alarming, Team Obama seems to have written a road map that others are eagerly following. The information spigot is increasingly being turned off by state and local governments, universities and sports teams, according to journalists who spoke Wednesday as well as ASNE legal counsel Kevin Goldberg, who says the problem goes all the way down to high schools. "There is a concerted effort," he says.

This isn't simply inside baseball for frustrated journalists. It's a serious problem for the American people when they can't find out what their government is doing and must depend on propaganda-style government handouts, in which everything is rosy and not a discouraging word is heard.

It's widely agreed by journalists who cover the Obama administration that it has the worst record of all time when it comes to freedom of information. "There is a serious problem with access across the federal government," Buzbee says, adding that the situation has "worsened significantly in the last few years."

Says AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll, "(President George W.) Bush was bad. Obama's worse."

The problems go far beyond gagged transportation sources. Buzbee has a long list of infractions, including: few opportunities to take photographs or video of Obama appearances (the administration likes to distribute its own); no photos or video of bombers taking off for sorties against the Islamic State and no embedded journalists on hand; a massive blackout on information about Guantanamo; unprecedented ferocity in prosecuting national security leaks designed to intimidate journalists and chill sources.

And the get-tough approach is having an impact. "It's harder to get sources to believe that we can protect them," says AP senior managing editor Mike Oreskes.

But the information crisis has spread far beyond the Beltway, says AP Managing Editor for U.S. News Brian Carovillano, infecting state and local governments and institutions of higher learning. "It's the most difficult climate we've seen," he says.

Carovillano points to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who also ran as a big transparency guy, then tried unsuccessfully to have his swearing-in closed to the press. But, says Carovillano, Hizzoner has since barred the media from 53 events, and on some days his entire schedule is off-limits.

And there is no limit to the absurdity. Outgoing ASNE President David Boardman, the former Seattle Times editor who is now dean of the Temple University School of Media and Communication, recalls a time when the University of Washington wanted to limit the number of tweets at sporting events.

So what's the answer? The news media have to battle back on every front. They should refuse to run government photos and video. Reporters should constantly push back as hard as they can. News outlets should be ready to challenge unreasonable restraint in court. And the industry must band together in a full-fledged campaign against government secrecy.

And they must do their best to educate the people about why this is their problem. Because the American public — and American democracy — are the losers when the electorate can't get the information it needs to make informed decisions.

Oh, and one more thing, says New York Times reporter James Risen, the convention's keynote speaker, who faces jail time for refusing to ID a confidential source: The best idea is to do even more hard-edged investigative reporting, to find out more things the government doesn't want you to know. That, he said, would amount to a "brushback pitch."

"If there's not pushback," he says, the authorities are going to "keep doing what they are doing."