More on Obama and Transparency.

From the WP:

From: Larry Strickling 
Date: November 6, 2008 6:58:14 PM EST
To: itw-policygroups
Cc: Priya Singh
Subject: . . . Rerminder–Decline All Reporter Interviews and Speaking Requests

This is a reminder that our communications department has directed all of you, as policy committee members, to decline all requests from reporters and all speaking invitations regarding the transition, the Administration’s priorities and related issues. If you are contacted by a reporter to discuss these matters, please refer the reporter to Priya Singh at psingh@barackobama.com. If you receive an invitation to speak on these issues at a conference or meeting, please decline the request. At this point in time, there is no one to whom to refer the request and do not offer to do so on behalf of the organization extending you the invitation. We realize these requirements may appear Draconian but so soon after the election, with the transition effort just being organized, it is important that no one who was involved with the campaign and the policy committees be speculating in public on these sensitive matters.

And so it begins.

G.D.

G.D.

Gene "G.D." Demby is the founder and editor of PostBourgie. In his day job, he blogs and reports on race and ethnicity for NPR's Code Switch team.
G.D.
  • ladyfresshh

    um…what begins?

  • shani-o

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this is so vague.

    What are you concerned about, exactly? They know how it looks, but they’re more concerned with getting things done right than talking about it. I may eat my words one day, but right now, I don’t see what the problem is.

    Seriously. And if the press does their jobs, they might be able to find out more than Obama spokesperson is willing to tell. After a decade of repeating what they’ve been told by organized leaks, I know they’re a little rusty, but come on, reporters. If you wanna know what’s up, go digging.

  • Paula

    Truthfully, this probably has more to do with him not wanting to inherit Bush’s problems earlier than he has to. “One president at a time” stuff. If reporters are constantly leaking out what he thinks should happen and it’s conflated with what’s actually happening as directed by people who have actual power, there’s basically a big unnecessary conflation/mess that impinges on his political capital in Jan 2009.

    That being said, if this means that media are somehow not allowed to comment on Cabinet appointments and such over the next few months, it’s time to raise some hell …

  • scott

    So much for transparency. The change.org website has scrubbed their list of 25 agenda items and substituted one long vague paragraph. Are they afraid of telling Americans exactly what they are going to do to us?

  • Paula

    Really … hmmm.

    I’m looking up the Google [news] almost every hour and every time there some new policy “thing” on the Obama agenda that’s been leaked/released. Guantanamo, the global gag rule, reversing Executive Orders on stem cell research, CA vehicle emissions standards, auto industry bailout, reversing the policy on AIDS funding in Africa being tied to abstinence education … ummmm, come to think of it, that might be why they shut that list down …

  • Paula

    Oh, and new “czars” in tech policy and “urban” policy.

  • scott

    Why is Obama now afraid to tell America about his agenda? After all, wasn’t this the “change” that America needs and that he was so proud of?

  • scott

    The Obama admin is getting less transparent by the moment. Obama said that lobbyists would not work in his White House but now says they can work there as long as they don’t work in areas they lobbied in during the past year.

  • sorry, scott. no one’s taking the bait.

  • scott

    What bait is that?