Secrecy

Bush's 'Sound Science' Means Spin & Censorship

by John Stauber — February 18, 2004 - 11:00pm

The Bush administration loves to wrap itself in the mantle of "sound science," but as we've reported in our book Trust Us, We're Experts, "sound science" is a buzz-word for science with a pro-industry bias.

Main Source: 
New York Times, February 19, 2004

Shh...Offshoring In Process

by Sheldon Rampton — December 23, 2003 - 11:00pm

"US corporations are picking up the pace in shifting well-paid technology jobs to India, China and other low-cost centres, but they are keeping quiet for fear of a backlash," reports David Zielenziger. "Morgan Stanley estimates the number of US jobs outsourced to India will double to about 150,000 in the next three years.

Main Source: 
Reuters, December 24, 2003

Keeping Secrets

by Sheldon Rampton — December 21, 2003 - 11:00pm

"For the past three years, the Bush administration has quietly but efficiently dropped a shroud of secrecy across many critical operations of the federal government - cloaking its own affairs from scrutiny and removing from the public domain important information on health, safety, and environmental matters," report Christopher H. Schmitt and Edward T. Pound.

Main Source: 
US News and World Report, December 22, 2003

White House Web Scrubbing

by Sheldon Rampton — December 17, 2003 - 11:00pm

"It's not quite Soviet-style airbrushing, but the Bush administration has been using cyberspace to make some of its own cosmetic touch-ups to history," writes Dana Milbank. "White House officials were steamed when Andrew S. Natsios, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said earlier this year that U.S.

Main Source: 
Washington Post, December 18, 2003

Media Silent on Prosecution of Whistleblower Katharine Gun

by John Stauber — December 13, 2003 - 11:00pm

Norman Solomon writes that "few Americans have heard of Katharine Gun, a former British intelligence employee facing charges that she violated the Official Secrets Act. So far, the American press has ignored her. But the case raises profound questions about democracy and the public's right to know on both sides of the Atlantic. Ms. Gun's legal peril began in Britain on March 2, when the Observer newspaper exposed a highly secret memorandum by a top U.S. National Security Agency official. ...

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Baltimore Sun, December 14, 2003

Silencing Save the Children

by Sheldon Rampton — November 27, 2003 - 11:00pm

The British wing of the Save the Children charity was ordered to stop critizing the U.S.-led coalition's military occupation of Iraq, after it issued a statement saying that "lack of cooperation from the coalition forces is a breach of the Geneva conventions and its protocols, but more importantly the time now being wasted is costing children their lives." Kevin Maguire reports that the incident exposed "tensions within an alliance that describes itself as 'the world's largest independent global organisation for children' but which is heavily reliant on governments and big business for cash."

Main Source: 
Guardian (UK), November 28, 2003

Media Kept From Soldier Funerals

by Laura Miller — November 23, 2003 - 11:00pm

"The Pentagon took another step in distancing the media from US casualties of war last week with the announcement of new restrictions on funeral coverage at Arlington National Cemetery (ANC)," PR Week's Douglas Quenqua reports. "Any reporter wanting to cover a soldier's funeral at the Virginia cemetery will now be required to stay within a distant, roped-off area. This 'bullpen' is described as an area far enough away from the proceedings that a clergyman or family member's words cannot be clearly heard.

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PR Week, November 24, 2003

The Memory Hole

by Sheldon Rampton — November 12, 2003 - 11:00pm

The New York Times has profiled Russ Kick's "memory hole" web site, which saves official documents from oblivion and posts them online. "I'm certainly not a journalist in the normal sense of the word," Kick says. "I'm more of an information archaeologist. I'm trying to get the stuff that's either been purposely buried or just covered over by time."

Main Source: 
New York Times, November 13, 2003

Copyright vs. Democracy

by Sheldon Rampton — November 2, 2003 - 11:00pm

"Diebold Election Systems, which makes voting machines, is waging legal war against grass-roots advocates, including dozens of college students, who are posting on the Internet copies of the company's internal communications about its electronic voting machines," reports John Schwartz.

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New York Times, November 3, 2003

Curtains for Coffins

by Sheldon Rampton — October 20, 2003 - 10:00pm

"Since the end of the Vietnam War, presidents have worried that their military actions would lose support once the public glimpsed the remains of U.S. soldiers arriving at air bases in flag-draped caskets," writes Dana Milbank.

Main Source: 
Washington Post, October 21, 2003
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