{"id":819,"date":"2008-03-04T10:51:42","date_gmt":"2008-03-04T18:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=819"},"modified":"2008-03-04T10:51:42","modified_gmt":"2008-03-04T18:51:42","slug":"george-w-bushs-legacy-of-secrecy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=819","title":{"rendered":"George W. Bush’s Legacy Of Secrecy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joseph Wheelan, with George Mason University’s History News Network, reminds us of a dangerous assault<\/a> on open and honest government. It came in the form of George W. Bush’s Executive Order 13233<\/a>: The Presidential Records Act Executive Order.<\/p>\n

“…this is not just another blow against openness; Bush’s Executive Order 13233 could change history – literally – by restricting historians’ access to materials that help them document and ultimately judge a president’s actions, lapses, and principles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Executive Order 13233 gives ex-presidents nearly unlimited discretionary authority to prohibit the release of their papers…”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article goes on to describe the practical impact of this Order.<\/p>\n

“Executive Order 13233 portends a day when spin, the currency of politics, may become the province, too, of presidential history. One can envision a future when a presidential library’s watchdogs would allow only “safe”<\/em> historians to sift through the library’s holdings for material to cook up a bracingly whitewashed version of his subject’s actions. Objective historians, denied access to the panegyrist’s primary sources and all the juicy details, would be placed at a severe disadvantage. Which version do you think would get the seven-figure publishing advance and the lavish promotional campaign?”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is not a new development. The Order was issued in November of 2001, shortly after the terrorist attacks on 9\/11. It’s almost as if the still new Bush administration knew in advance that they would be engaging in nefarious activities that had to be covered up. In the intervening years, Bush has proven to be the most secrecy-obsessed<\/a> president in U.S. history.<\/p>\n

This being an election year, it is a good time to recall this stain on academic freedom and the public’s right to know the truth about it’s leaders and their actions. It would be nice to get the present crop of presidential aspirants to go on record as to whether they would revoke Executive Order 13233 if elected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joseph Wheelan, with George Mason University’s History News Network, reminds us of a dangerous assault on open and honest government. It came in the form of George W. Bush’s Executive Order 13233: The Presidential Records Act Executive Order. “…this is not just another blow against openness; Bush’s Executive Order 13233 could change history – literally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,1,8],"tags":[167],"class_list":["post-819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-press","category-general","category-propaganda","tag-george-w-bush"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-dd","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1176,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1176","url_meta":{"origin":819,"position":0},"title":"Bush Era Of Secrecy May Be Coming To An End","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/14\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"George W. Bush has presided over the most secrecy-obsessed administration in the history of the country. More documents have been classified than at any other time. White House officials have defied court orders to disclose data, calendars, and emails. They even claimed that the vice-president was not subject to Congressional\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Censorship"","block_context":{"text":"Censorship","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=56"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1182,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1182","url_meta":{"origin":819,"position":1},"title":"Obama Already Undoing The Bush Era Of Secrecy","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/21\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"One week ago I wrote that the Bush Era Of Secrecy May Be Coming To An End, noting that: George W. Bush has presided over the most secrecy-obsessed administration in the history of the country. Well, on his first full day as president, Barack Obama has issued a series of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Free Press"","block_context":{"text":"Free Press","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=14"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":839,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=839","url_meta":{"origin":819,"position":2},"title":"Passport-Gate: Secrets In The House Of Bush","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/21\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In less than 24 hours, a story that began with the disclosure that State Department employees were peeking into the passport records of Barack Obama, it has come to light that the snooping also extended to Hillary Clinton and John McCain. While there is still much that is unknown, these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1204,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1204","url_meta":{"origin":819,"position":3},"title":"Obama Must Reject Bush’s Imperial Bequest","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/19\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The legacy of George W. Bush lives on in the form of executive powers that he invented in order to pursue his extra-Constitutional agenda. The risk of setting his megalomania into precedent was amongst the best reasons to prosecute and\/or impeach him and his accomplices. In Washington, it has been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1147,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1147","url_meta":{"origin":819,"position":4},"title":"Dismembering George W. Bush","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/8\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"As the administration of George W. Bush at long last comes to a close, the historical record of his presidency will begin to take shape. And like everything else that touches this president, the outlines of his legacy will be distorted by his accomplices and apologists. They will seek to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1145,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1145","url_meta":{"origin":819,"position":5},"title":"Chris Wallace Defends His Hero George Bush","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/3\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"At a Washington screening of Ron Howard's new movie, Frost\/Nixon, Howard slipped into a bit of uncharacteristic politicking. The Washington Times reports that... Mr. Howard was the first to comment about the film's connection to Mr. Bush, saying that he had told friends in 1977 that an abuse of power\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}