Fri 6 Mar 2009
The casual, corrupting use of anonymity for political officials
Posted by k under Civil Liberties , DemocracyNo Comments
Glenn Greenwald Salon 3/06/09
For an administration flamboyantly vowing new levels of transparency, the Obama White House continuously relies upon one of the most un-transparent political weapons: namely, disseminating to the public — typically through sympathetic journalists — purely pro-administration assertions while hiding behind a journalistically baseless grant of anonymity. There are numerous manipulative and distorting effects from having government officials make pronouncements while remaining anonymous, one of the most significant of which is that there is no accountability whatsoever when they make false or misleading statements. (more…)