Inconvenient Information
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Today I found that a site I visit on some occasion - economicindicators.gov is being shut down by the government due to “budgetary constraints.” I wondered how that is possible considering the $3.1 trillion proposed budget for ‘09.
This site was even rated by Forbes on their Best of the Web list in the Market Data category. It certainly can’t be that expensive to keep this site up and the value to cost has to be through the roof. The only conclusion I could come to is that this data is inconvenient. The administration is trying to paint a rosier picture of the economy and cold hard data doesn’t support that image.
Upset with this, I did a search to find out if I can get more context around this event. I stumbled upon The Carpetbagger Report. They mentioned this shutdown as well as several other actions to make inconvenient data unavailable.
* In 2005, after a government report showed an increase in terrorism around the world, the administration announced it would stop publishing its annual report on international terrorism.
* After the Bureau of Labor Statistics uncovered discouraging data about factory closings in the U.S., the administration announced it would stop publishing information about factory closings.* When Bush’s Department of Education found that charter schools were underperforming, the administration said it would sharply cut back on the information it collects about charter schools.
Regardless of political affiliation, this is disturbing. Government should move towards more transparency not less. Reducing public information is the characteristic of a closed society not a free one.
I encourage you to write to your congressman/woman to let them know this is not right. Last I checked that information is still available.
2 Comments on this post
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Dan said:
Come on, you know if they wanted to keep this site running they would. Budget problems is a cop-out.
February 14th, 2008 at 5:46 pm -
CyberCelt said:
When the current administration refused ot acknowledge global warming and bowed out of the Kyoto protocols, they also starting trying to change science. Any government scientist who was going to give a speech had to be cleared by the White House.
If you are interested, I found the post on this on my environmental blog:
http://endangeredspaces.blogspot.com/2007/04/this-should-scare-you-speechless.html
This administration is cutting human services and incentives for alternative energy, while the oil companies have the most profitable years of their history.
It is like someone opened the doors to the store and said “come get it.”
February 18th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
