I am shaken by the letter from former public health officials asking federal employees to speak out about science and pandemic issues.
Most of those signing are officials from previous presidential administrations.
They were part of building and entrenching the systems, the culture, that says no one in federal agencies could communicate a word with journalists without oversight by authorities, usually the public information officers, who have been transformed into our censors.
The banning of any contact outside of the controls was quite catastrophic enough. But all kinds of barriers, including total blockage, were put on contacts with staff, a long time before President Trump took office.
I was The Nation’s Health editor when the AIDS epidemic emerged, before the blockages. In that fearful time, as a matter of routine, there was the official story and there was the real story. In the early to mid-1990s, the federal establishment began banning the flow of the real stories.
Trying to report on agencies like CDC and FDA was increasingly hellacious under the Bush and Obama administrations.
Representatives from a coalition of over 50 journalism and open government groups met with Obama White House officials in 2015 to ask that this censorship be stopped. We were promised an answer and it never came:
https://www.spj.org/news.asp?ref=1368
We warned press officer Josh Earnest that often when the press does not know something, the administration leaders don’t either.
Now, as one example, if CDC has developed corrosive disabilities, they likely did not begin under this administration. More likely they began under previous administrations while journalists could have no normal contact with staff, as they still can't. Ten thousand plus CDC people are in effect silenced.
After decades of making federal staff live under pressure to never speak without controls, the nation is now hoping, since things have gotten bad enough, they will talk.
It is worth asking whether the nation would be better off under previous administrations when we were limited to controlled, official statements, compared to now when we are often not even getting that. At least now we are not misled into thinking we are getting the full story.
I’d appreciate talking to anyone who signed the letter. For one thing, First Amendment attorney Frank LoMonte has done an extensive analysis that finds the “Censorship by PIO” is unconstitutional and many courts have said so. The former federal officials might help with that.
Most of those signing are officials from previous presidential administrations.
They were part of building and entrenching the systems, the culture, that says no one in federal agencies could communicate a word with journalists without oversight by authorities, usually the public information officers, who have been transformed into our censors.
The banning of any contact outside of the controls was quite catastrophic enough. But all kinds of barriers, including total blockage, were put on contacts with staff, a long time before President Trump took office.
I was The Nation’s Health editor when the AIDS epidemic emerged, before the blockages. In that fearful time, as a matter of routine, there was the official story and there was the real story. In the early to mid-1990s, the federal establishment began banning the flow of the real stories.
Trying to report on agencies like CDC and FDA was increasingly hellacious under the Bush and Obama administrations.
Representatives from a coalition of over 50 journalism and open government groups met with Obama White House officials in 2015 to ask that this censorship be stopped. We were promised an answer and it never came:
https://www.spj.org/news.asp?ref=1368
We warned press officer Josh Earnest that often when the press does not know something, the administration leaders don’t either.
Now, as one example, if CDC has developed corrosive disabilities, they likely did not begin under this administration. More likely they began under previous administrations while journalists could have no normal contact with staff, as they still can't. Ten thousand plus CDC people are in effect silenced.
After decades of making federal staff live under pressure to never speak without controls, the nation is now hoping, since things have gotten bad enough, they will talk.
It is worth asking whether the nation would be better off under previous administrations when we were limited to controlled, official statements, compared to now when we are often not even getting that. At least now we are not misled into thinking we are getting the full story.
I’d appreciate talking to anyone who signed the letter. For one thing, First Amendment attorney Frank LoMonte has done an extensive analysis that finds the “Censorship by PIO” is unconstitutional and many courts have said so. The former federal officials might help with that.
