The Knight Institute for the First Amendment at Columbia University has sued the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention seeking release of information on policies restricting staff rights to speak to the press.
“Recent news stories indicate that the White House started requiring CDC scientists and health officials to coordinate with the Office of Vice President Mike Pence before speaking with members of the press or public about the pandemic,” says the Institute.
In addition, the Union of Concerned Scientists filed a letter with CDC saying the agencies’ experts should be able to speak directly to the public about the coronavirus pandemic.
“We at the Union of Concerned Scientists have noticed an ongoing pattern in the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic—scientists and public health officials from the CDC are no longer speaking directly to the public. No media interviews, no press briefings…just silence since early March.”
It’s horrifying that CDC is apparently on lockdown from speaking to the press or the public, now, when the agency is one of the most important entities on the globe.
It’s critical to understand, however, CDC has been on lockdown pretty much for anything other than the official story since late in the last century. And that was while the world was lurching toward this point of being unprepared for a pandemic.
All that time CDC, like many other federal agencies and other entities, has banned its staff from ever speaking to reporters without going through a public information office. A CDC justification is below.
The thing is, despite any justification, censorship induces horrors. CDC’s decades-old policy means no staff person is allowed to speak without oversight at the bosses’ behest. That often means there are whole universes of facts and perspectives the person being interviewed will not mention. Reporters may publish some really interesting stuff, but it often won’t be the things keeping the staff people up at night. What is hidden is constantly dangerous to public welfare and the constraints are of the same linage as China’s information control.
Beyond the mandate oversight, the reporters are often not allowed to speak to the people they request. Note below the CDC statement’s indication that the press officer can find the best spokesperson for the reporter. That means the press officer will also determine who the reporter will not talk to.
Those aspects of the controls are the most basic and they are quite enough to ensure deadly risks and corrosion, hidden indefinitely.
However, there is also the fact any normal level of contact is choked off by the permission-to-speak mandate itself. There are thousands of journalists and thousands of staff separated by that wall. For everybody’s welfare, they should be talking to each other. There is only one small opening in the wall, consisting of a few public information officers. Every contact must be assigned one of those chaperones. That alone, from the outset, kills most conversations that might have happened.
So, in this time when we are concerned that CDC is closed off, let’s be careful what we ask for. Be hyper-aware that if CDC begins making official statements again, prominently, there will still be those thousands of staff people who are, in effect, silenced.
***
This is on CDC’s website under frequently asked questions for reporters:
“Recent news stories indicate that the White House started requiring CDC scientists and health officials to coordinate with the Office of Vice President Mike Pence before speaking with members of the press or public about the pandemic,” says the Institute.
In addition, the Union of Concerned Scientists filed a letter with CDC saying the agencies’ experts should be able to speak directly to the public about the coronavirus pandemic.
“We at the Union of Concerned Scientists have noticed an ongoing pattern in the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic—scientists and public health officials from the CDC are no longer speaking directly to the public. No media interviews, no press briefings…just silence since early March.”
It’s horrifying that CDC is apparently on lockdown from speaking to the press or the public, now, when the agency is one of the most important entities on the globe.
It’s critical to understand, however, CDC has been on lockdown pretty much for anything other than the official story since late in the last century. And that was while the world was lurching toward this point of being unprepared for a pandemic.
All that time CDC, like many other federal agencies and other entities, has banned its staff from ever speaking to reporters without going through a public information office. A CDC justification is below.
The thing is, despite any justification, censorship induces horrors. CDC’s decades-old policy means no staff person is allowed to speak without oversight at the bosses’ behest. That often means there are whole universes of facts and perspectives the person being interviewed will not mention. Reporters may publish some really interesting stuff, but it often won’t be the things keeping the staff people up at night. What is hidden is constantly dangerous to public welfare and the constraints are of the same linage as China’s information control.
Beyond the mandate oversight, the reporters are often not allowed to speak to the people they request. Note below the CDC statement’s indication that the press officer can find the best spokesperson for the reporter. That means the press officer will also determine who the reporter will not talk to.
Those aspects of the controls are the most basic and they are quite enough to ensure deadly risks and corrosion, hidden indefinitely.
However, there is also the fact any normal level of contact is choked off by the permission-to-speak mandate itself. There are thousands of journalists and thousands of staff separated by that wall. For everybody’s welfare, they should be talking to each other. There is only one small opening in the wall, consisting of a few public information officers. Every contact must be assigned one of those chaperones. That alone, from the outset, kills most conversations that might have happened.
So, in this time when we are concerned that CDC is closed off, let’s be careful what we ask for. Be hyper-aware that if CDC begins making official statements again, prominently, there will still be those thousands of staff people who are, in effect, silenced.
***
This is on CDC’s website under frequently asked questions for reporters:
“Why is it necessary to go through a press officer when I want to talk with a CDC expert?
“Press officers are here to make sure your questions get answered by the best spokesperson for your story, within your deadline. CDC experts are working scientists and may not be available for interviews at all times. A press officer can help you find the best expert or spokesperson to answer your questions.”
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