Saving Gasoline and Ignoring the Public, Too

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan stated that one of the ways the administration would be saving energy is by cutting the number of vans used to transport members of the press. The many trips to various sites along the Gulf Coast for photo opportunities are obviously intended to improve the president's sagging image and poll numbers. Never mind that the president intentionally excluded any conservation measures in his recently passed national energy policy. Mr. Bush and his staff have come up with a brilliant way to kill two birds with one stone. The first bird killed is accurate information passed on to the public by an unbiased press. It is no secret that the current administration is the most secretive in our lifetime, and possibly in all our history. It has gutted the Presidential Papers Act, the Freedom of Information Act and has standing instructions to all its departments that public information is to be doled out to an inquiring public in dribs and drabs. This attempt at restricting information, of course, does not apply to sympathetic media who act as the government's propaganda arm. Think Fox News for one. The other bird killed by the administration is the unbiased press members who report exactly what they see, regardless of how much the administration tries to intimidate them. The media allowed to ride with the presidential convoy will exclude those critical of the administration. Some of us noticed that the coverage following the first few days after Hurricane Katrina differed greatly from the coverage after the third day. All of a sudden, there were no more corpses floating in water and less outrage at the treatment of the victims housed in appalling conditions. It never ceases to amaze me how resourceful this group in Washington, D.C. is. All one has to do is look at how the destroyed area quickly became an enterprise zone for Bush-friendly companies with no environmental, affirmative action and worker wage restrictions. What a shame the same resourcefulness was not applied to helping victims.

NICK REINA

Milmay

Letter printed in the Daily Journal, October 15, 2005.

http://thedailyjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051015/OPINION03/510150323/1014/OPINION