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.