OPEN GOVERNMENT — The New York Times editorializes that the Bush Administration's unprecedented recourse to secrecy, for eight years a defiance of informed democracy, is now an injury to history
Modern administrations from Ronald Reagans to Bill Clintons typically tried to evade at least some disclosure obligations under the public archives law. But the Bush team, from day one, has flouted the requirement to preserve a truthful record, ignoring repeated warnings from the National Archives. In government agencies, the publics freedom-of-information rights have been maliciously hobbled.
The National Archives is further burdened by the steady and inevitable growth in digital recordsa mass 50 times larger than that left eight years ago by the Clinton administration. It will take years to ingest before historians can truly get a handle on what is missing.
History is truly the poorer for the Bush administration. President-elect Barack Obama must quickly undo the damage by ordering that records be shielded from political interference, by repairing the freedom-of-information process, and by ending the abuse of the classification process to cloak the truths of the presidency.
The National Archives is further burdened by the steady and inevitable growth in digital recordsa mass 50 times larger than that left eight years ago by the Clinton administration. It will take years to ingest before historians can truly get a handle on what is missing.
History is truly the poorer for the Bush administration. President-elect Barack Obama must quickly undo the damage by ordering that records be shielded from political interference, by repairing the freedom-of-information process, and by ending the abuse of the classification process to cloak the truths of the presidency.
