Is President Obama The Most Secretive President?

Obama: The Most Secretive President? -- Lloyd Grove, The Daily Beast

A presidential administration expected to be more open and transparent than preceding ones has become focused on keeping secrets and preventing legitimate public inquiry.

Having been elected to the White House with the promise of increased openness and transparency regarding government operations, Barack Obama may end his presidency as among the most secretive in American history.

That, anyway, was the conclusion of a couple of the high-powered panelists Monday night during a debate on freedom of the press vs. national security at the Paley Center for Media.

The result—argued Hina Shamsi of the American Civil Liberties Union and Barton Gellman of The Washington Post—is stifled freedom of the press, less official accountability and a potential increase in government-sanctioned wrongdoing behind a veil of secrecy that supposedly protects the homeland but actually shields federal officials from legitimate public inquiry.

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My Comment: Every administration has always tried their best to guard their secrets .... the difference is that the U.S. press has (from my perspective) definitely been "cowed" into submission when it comes to covering damaging stories with this administration. Scandals like Benghazi, the IRS targeting conservative groups, Fast and Furious, the politicization of the Justice Department, Edward Snowden's NSA revelations .... in many of these stories the main stream media have either been slow in covering, or (in the case of Benghazi) sometimes even being absent for months. I can understand why some secrets must be kept secret .... but we now have a press that is clearly worried that blow-back from the White House may end up seriously damaging their careers .... or (when it comes to national security secrets) going to jail.