It's no surprise that The Little News Bureau that could, Knight-Ridder Washington, is leading the charge against the absurd practice of anonymous background briefings:

"It's easy to say that the Bush administration has taken secrecy to a new level. Because it has," said Knight-Ridder reporter Ron Hutcheson, who is the president of the White House Correspondents Association. "But we've let them."

Hutcheson described his own personal walk-out from an anonymous briefing last term. It turned out to be a solo affair. No one followed him.

Dan Froomkin has more on the challenge of getting everyone else on board.

In other Sunshine Week related news, see the ongoing mensch-like work that the indefatiguable Steven Aftergood is doing. In particular, read his Slate piece entitled The Age of Missing Information. Freedom of Information is definitely beating a hasty retreat under the Bush administration, and Steven Aftergood is doing his level best to fight back.

... while we're on the subject, what's up with somebody trying to hamfistedly smear William Arkin? And the Gertz connection here is a bit rich, as Laura correctly notes. Gertz leaks more senstive stuff than anybody, I'd wager.

For those of you dropping by chez Nadezhda from the World Bank today, welcome. Not surprisingly, there are quite a number of you! If you're interested in a discussion of today's reactions from around the globe as well as what the Wolfowitz nomination means for the Bank's future, we're following it here in a comment thread and updates. We'd be especially interested in getting some of the reactions of Bank staff, so please feel welcome to join in the discussion. {And some further discussion here and here.} nadezhda

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{original post, Oct 25 2004}

I've suspected for some time that Paul Wolfowitz is far more interesting and less ideologically rigid than he's been made out to be. This fascinating New Yorker profile and some quick googling turned up this article:

In fact, there is a woman from whom Wolfowitz does draw support and backing for his views, but she comes from a very different — and unexpected — background. His closest companion and most valued confidantes is a middle-aged Arab feminist whose own strongly held views on instilling democracy in her native West Asia have helped bolster his resolve.

Shaha Ali Riza is a senior World Bank official who was born in Tunis, grew up in Saudi Arabia and holds an international relations masters degree from St Anthony’s College, Oxford. Close acquaintances of the couple have told The Daily Telegraph that she is romantically linked with Wolfowitz, 61, a fellow divorcee with whom she has been friends for several years.

Even by the discreet standards of Washington’s powerful inner circle, it is a remarkably closely guarded secret. They rarely go out as a couple openly or demonstrate affection publicly, according to friends who are aware of the relationship. They attend low-key Washington social events and visit friends’ homes together and Riza also sometimes goes to official functions and dinners with him, but is not identified as his partner, an acquaintance said.

“Most people would never guess there was a relationship, even if they saw them together,” he said.

It is a sign of the sensitivity surrounding the relationship that the few friends willing even to acknowledge it last week did not want to be named. “Shaha Riza runs around with Wolfowitz a lot. I gather she is his current girlfriend but they are very careful about this,” said one.

As far as I know, this hasn't been denied.

I also found this strange page that asserts that Riza is under surveillance by some strange combination of the Mossad and the Mujahedin-e-Khalq.

Bizarre world we live in.

The Washington Post has a
good editorial today:

WHAT DOES Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" have in common with the Bush administration? They're both unabashed about putting out fake news. The Bush administration's version consists of video news releases -- government-produced, government-funded spots packaged to look and sound like regular television reports, complete with fake news reporters signing off from Washington. These are intended to be, and often are, aired by local television stations without any indication that the government is behind them. The Government Accountability Office found this kind of phony news to be impermissible "covert propaganda." It warned the government last month that such prepackaged news stories must be accompanied by a "clear disclosure to the television viewing audience" of the government's involvement. The Bush administration is now instructing its officials to ignore the GAO -- which is where (in addition to the question of comedic content) the administration and Mr. Stewart diverge. He wants you to know his news is phony.

Although this administration apparently isn't the first to use video news releases, it seems more enamored of them than its predecessors. For example: A spot commissioned by the Transportation Security Administration lauds "another success" in the Bush administration's "drive to strengthen aviation security," which the "reporter" describes as "one of the most remarkable campaigns in aviation history."

It's humiliating that local news stations, however short-staffed and desperate for footage, would allow themselves to be used this way. Indeed, as the New York Times reported Sunday, some have even lopped off government attribution when it was included or pretended the government reporter was one of their own. Even so, it's disingenuous for administration officials to blame the stations, given that many releases are crafted precisely to disguise their government origin.

This technique is both illegal and unwise. As a legal matter, the prepackaged news releases run afoul of the prohibition on the use of government funds for domestic "propaganda." The administration's interpretation -- it's okay to hide the source as long as the spot is "purely informational" -- is untenable: Highlighting some "facts" and leaving out others can be even more persuasive than outright advocacy, which is why the administration chose this device. More important, this kind of propaganda masquerading as news is a deceitful way for a democratic government to do business; fake journalists paid by the government to deliver its version of news are as disturbing as real commentators paid by the government to tout its views. White House press secretary Scott McClellan defended the video news releases on Monday as "an informational tool to provide factual information to the American people." Nice sentiment, but why, exactly, wouldn't the administration want to let the people in on one of the most salient facts: who, really, is doing the talking?

Bush was finally asked about this practice at one of his rare press conferences:

Q Mr. President, earlier this year, you told us you wanted your administration to cease and desist on payments to journalists to promote your agenda. You cited the need for ethical concerns and the need for bright line between the press and the government. Your administration continue to make the use of video news releases, which is prepackaged news stories sent to television stations, fully aware that some -- or many of these stations will air them without any disclaimer that they are produced by the government. The Comptroller General of the United States, this week, said that raises ethical questions. Does it raise ethical questions about the use of government money to produce stories about the government that wind up being aired with no disclosure that they were produced by the government?

THE PRESIDENT: There is a Justice Department opinion that says these -- these pieces are within the law, so long as they're based upon facts, not advocacy. And I expect our agencies to adhere to that ruling, to that Justice Department opinion. This has been a longstanding practice of the federal government to use these types of videos. The Agricultural Department, as I understand it, has been using these videos for a long period of time. The Defense Department, other departments have been doing so. It's important that they be based on the guidelines set out by the Justice Department.

Now, I also -- I think it would be helpful if local stations then disclosed to their viewers that that's -- that this was based upon a factual report, and they chose to use it. But evidently, in some cases, that's not the case. So, anyway.

Q The administration could guarantee that's happening by including that language in the pre-packaged report.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I don't -- oh, you mean a disclosure, "I'm George W. Bush, and I" --

Q Well, some way to make sure it couldn't air without the disclosure that you believe is so vital.

THE PRESIDENT: You know, Ken, there's a procedure that we're going to follow, and the local stations ought to -- if there's a deep concern about that, ought to tell their viewers what they're watching.

Weak, weak stuff for the leader of the free world.

Meanwhile, Friends of the Earth has uncovered more deliberately misleading VNRs.

This is, to put it mildy, an embarrassing situation for the world's oldest democracy. I'm wondering where the so-called libertarians are on this one.

(thanks to dKos for the links)

Alas:

Amid the backdrop of soaring oil and gasoline prices, a sharply divided Senate on Wednesday voted to open the ecologically rich Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling, delivering a major energy policy win for President Bush (news - web sites).

The Senate, by a 51-49 vote, rejected an attempt by Democrats and GOP moderates to remove a refuge drilling provision from next year's budget, preventing opponents from using a filibuster — a tactic that has blocked repeated past attempts to open the Alaska refuge to oil companies.

... not completely over yet, as the Times explains:

For drilling to take place, the Senate will later have to pass a measure explicitly authorizing the opening of the wildlife refuge to drilling, something that until now has been prohibited. Then the House of Representatives would have to explicitly authorize drilling as well.

UPDATE: Steve Soto has an interesting theory on why Hawaii's two Senators voted to drill.

Publius has been on a roll lately, what with Sir Bork rescuing the fair maiden Original Understanding from the evil denizens of the Enchanted Liberal Forest and Publius himself tracing a path back to the foundation on which liberalism stands. So I can't call today's contribution "the best," but it's well worth a read, both for entertainment value and for a sober message.

Let me set the scene. This is the entr'acte before the curtain rises on Act II of our Social Security drama. After Act I, during which the Democrats have for most purposes won on the grounds that the emperor's wardrobe is empty, the story shifts to a search for new ways for the Democrats to defeat themselves. In this scene, a nice little bait-and-switch farce, the punditocracy has become complicit, even if unwitting in some cases. And here the pundits find themselves on much more comfortable ground -- not substance, mind you, but opining on the elaborate gavotte of power politics. They know the notes, and they're singing them from the chorus, but Publius to their distress isn't following the score. So they sing even louder the inevitable calls for a gesture from the victorious of "compromise for the greater good" -- though in this case it seems a bit premature given the fragility of the apparent victory in what has been so far merely a minor skirmish in Act I.

As Publius warns, compromise is only possible if two sides are basically talking about the same thing. When they're not, suggestions of compromise are simply... well, read it.

The garage attendant at my doctors' office is a young man from Ethiopia. He and I have become great buddies because I usually have the day's FT in hand as my waiting room reading material, and he and I (and Warren Buffett) agree that the FT's the greatest. As I was paying him the other day, he pointed to the front page of his own copy of the FT sitting next to the cash register, with Bernie Ebbers' face on the front below the fold.

"They better convict this guy," he said. "All these folks in jail, doing time for nothing compared to all the people he hurt..." he trailed off. Then he started up again. "If the system can't get these big guys for the unbelievable stuff they just think they can get away with...."

Promoting the virtues of democracy and the rule of law is a lot more effective when you can show the rule of law really works. The system got a credibility boost today.

I'm enjoying Jon Chait's blogging chez TPM. He notes today that America's elderly are by and large opposed to privatization because they're nice people who care for their families and fellow Americans. I can't help thinking, though, that the way Bush sneers, "you'll get your checks" has to bother a lot of these folks. It bothers me. It just sounds so ... condescending. Nasty, even.

That said, apparently according to John Zogby (and Nadezhda) there is, in fact some empirical support for the Mallabyian conventional wisdom that the Democrats need to do something to show that they, too, believe in some kind of opportunity society.

Even when it's indirectly about a sad and senseless tragedy. I know we all sometimes get a little single-minded and view the world through our own little prisms or pet issues, but I'm pretty sure this particular hobby-horse isn't likely to ride very far.

Shorter Kim du Toit: The next time you head off to church, be sure to pack your pistol, if you're in a jurisdiction that allows carrying concealed weapons.

The good folks at Centerfield are mildly chuffed exasperated that Congress is wasting its and everyone else's time with steroids in baseball. Perhaps this kind of cowpie, along with the increasingly obvious and odious stench of corruption emanating from chez Bugman, is why only 37% of the American people think highly of the job Congress is doing. Actually, I'm surprised the number isn't lower.

Unlike the nice moderates at Centerfield, I'm a partisan, so let's be perfectly clear about this: the GOP is in firm control of Congress, and it's almost completely their fault that Congress sucks.

nadezhda corrects my faux-British in comments below. lorry, lift, whatever.

First, choose an aspect of popular culture that you find offensive. This can be anything from Janet Jackson’s breast to “Desperate Housewives” to low-cut jeans. Label it un-American, and claim it is a symptom of the downfall of society. Then completely ignore the fact that popular culture is created by market forces and that most large media and entertainment corporations are owned by conservatives and contribute heavily to the Republican Party. Now you are free to blame popular culture, and by extension, the downfall of society, on liberals.

Yes, yes, the culture war trumps the class war and Hillary is making all the right moves. But it's still a big sham worthy of mockery. Don't tell anyone.

via Tim Blair, of all people.