Sunshine Week reveals gap in open government theory, reality

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Apologies — I’m late to the party for Sunshine Week, which started Sunday. But I’ll try to make up for it with some posts this week.

 For starters, check out this story from Scripps-Howard News Service, which reports the public’s attitude toward government secrecy:

‘A new survey of 1,001 adult residents of the United States found
that 70 percent believe that the federal government is either “very
secretive” or “somewhat secretive.” The largest portion of respondents,
44 percent, said it is “very secretive.”

That matches the worst rating the federal government received during the final year of George W. Bush’s presidency.’

That’s why efforts like Sunshine Week are important. Sunshine Week aims to bring attention to the importance of public records and public access to government, and the fact that even though states and the nation have laws that are intended to make government transparent, the reality is often something different.

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