One of Candidate Obama’s campaign promises was more openness in government, especially in dealing with special interests.

But Politics Magazine’s Campaign Insider Blog notes President Obama is fighting to keep secret which industry groups are visiting the White House:

Attorney General Eric Holder set a new legal standard for secrecy, requiring disclosure of public records only “if practicable.” Not since Bill Clinton attempted to redefine the meaning of “is” has terminology been so parsed by an administration. As a veteran of that Clinton-era legal team, Eric Holder obviously learned the benefits of word definition to limit the public’s right to know.

By making the case for subjectivity, the Obama Administration provides legal precedent and political cover for other elected officials, already loath to be transparent. Though Gov. Schwarzenegger signed an executive order last week that put government contracts and audits online, he twice vetoed stronger transparency bills. In Maryland, state legislators wouldn’t pass a disclosure bill even with an amendment that exempted elected officials.

Now, despite cosmetic support for openness, the Obama White House is refusing to disclose which coal industry big-wigs are meeting with the president.

This is Barack Obama we’re talking about, not George Bush. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Posted by Leroy Towns

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The U.S. Supreme Court appears ready to strike another blow in favor of free political speech.

This week, the court asked for further argument in a case that grew out of a “documentary” on Hillary Clinton during the 2008 elections.  The legal issues surrounding campaign finance are complex, but the NY Times does an excellent job decoding developments in the case.

Legal experts cited by the Times and others believe the court may be ready to strike down–or limit–a 1991 decision and portions of the 2003 McCain-Feingold  campaign finance law, both of which place severe restrictions on the ability of corporations to engage in political speech.

The Times reports:

The Roberts court has struck down every campaign finance regulation to reach it, and it seems to have a majority prepared to do more. Indeed, last year, in Federal Election Commission v. Davis, Justice Alito, writing for the majority, said leveling the electoral playing field was not a matter for the courts or constitutional.

The Davis case struck down the “millionaire’s amendment,” which raised the donor limits for rivals of rich politicians who finance their own campaigns.

In his opinion, Justice Alito cited Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s dissent in the Austin case. “The notion that the government has a legitimate interest in restricting the quantity of speech to equalize the relative influence of speakers on elections,” Justice Kennedy wrote in the passage cited by Justice Alito, is “antithetical to the First Amendment.”

It cannot be said too often that free political speech is the bedrock of free expression in this country. Posted by Leroy Towns

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The good news in South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s sordid affair is that Jenny Sanford has cracked the cult of victimhood that so pervades public life these days.

The governor’s wife is “anything but a victim,” says the NY Times. She was not standing stoically at his side during the public confession, she is not whining to the media, she is not closeted in a fit of weeping. Quite the opposite. She kicked the rascal out, she isn’t concerned about his political career and she is getting on with her life.

Contrast that with most other high profile sex scandals recently, including that suffered by Bill and Hillary Clinton and by Elizabeth and John Edwards.  The Edwards, in fact, have so elevated the art of victimhood that they both vie for the distinction of most victimized.

Public life is defined by victims. Gender, race, sexual preference, income, age, physical and mental health–all produce suffering victims vying for our sympathy and our protection. In politics, it is most often the wronged wife, standing by her man, the perfect victim.

They all could learn something from Jenny Sanford:

“Am I O.K.?” Mrs. Sanford repeated, from the driver’s seat of a vehicle. “You know what? I have great faith and I have great friends and great family. We have a good Lord in this world, and I know I’m going to be fine. Not only will I survive, I’ll thrive.”

Hillary Clinton, for example, would be a much more admirable person today had she thrown Bill’s clothes–and his dog–onto the White House lawn.

In carrying on his affair, the South Carolina governor abandoned his state and lied to its citizens, transgressions much worse than the affair itself. For those reasons he will have a difficult time remaining in office.

When it happens, the good folks of South Carolina should give some thought to elevating the other Sanford, Jenny, the one with good grace and character, to a high place in state politics. Posted by Leroy Towns

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The Federal Trade Commission, an agency with a lot of busy work already, is writing rules that would let it exercise control over bloggers.

I am not making this up. The story was reported here.

All kinds of bloggers, from the big ones at Politico to the little ones like me, would come under the eye and the fist of the federal government. The FTC says it wants to stop bloggers from making “unfounded” claims and from failing to disclose conflicts of interest.

When making unfounded claims becomes a crime journalists, professors and politicians are in big trouble.

For example, I might post something saying, “Members of Congress are working in the best interests of the country.” Because that is unfounded and a big whopper, some federal bureaucrat would be in touch with me threatening jail and fines.

Because most bloggers are poor, the mention of fines would send them scurrying to cover.

Not me. Man the Twitter parapets and pass along the iPhones. I’m going to fight these puffed up bureaucrats and beat back their assault on First Amendment free speech rights. I’m throwing down with a post on three proven ways to cure warts:

Readers, I can cure your warts three ways. 1) Send me $1 and I will send you a paper bag. Blow in it three times and place a silver dime on your wart. It will be gone in no time. 2) Send me $2 and I will send you a roll of duct tape. Place it over the wart, which will be gone in no time. 3) Send me $3 and I will send you a frog. Don’t kiss it yourself, send it to the FTC and tell them to kiss it. Your wart will be gone in a week.

There, FTC, put that in your case book and send your lawyers down here. I know a few lawyers myself and they are plenty interested in defending free speech.

Go ahead, pass your rule, and let’s test that sucker. You know where I am. You know I’ve got worse–conflicts of interests, even.  Game on. Posted by Leroy Towns

The media’s lid of secrecy surrounding the Talliban kidnapping of NY Times reporter David Rohde kicked up a storm of discussion over journalistic ethics. When is it right to bury a story, when is it right to report it?

No editor wants to have to make that decision when a colleague’s life hangs in the balance–or any other life, for that matter. Yet, the responsibility comes with the job.

Poynter’s Bob Steele, a respected voice on ethics, reflected the agony in an Editor & Publisher interview, when he asked, “Would a news organization apply different standards in the case of a government diplomat or a business executive or a tourist than they would one of their own?”

Rohde’s escape from the Taliban over the weekend brought the story into the open–and raised another question as well.

Rohde was actually one of a three-person team of journalists captured. The others were his assistant, Tahir Ludin, and driver Asadullah Mangal. While Ludin and Mangal do not fit the common conception of “journalist,” they were nevertheless working in a journalistic capacity.

Rohde and Ludin escaped. Mangal did not and still is being held by the Taliban. Yet, in the flurry of reporting, there seemed to be no hesitation in naming him. If it was ethical to withhold Rohde’s kidnapping to protect his safety, would it not be just as ethical to withhold Mangal’s name to protect him?

There may be no clear answers in this case, but news outlets walk a dangerous path in deciding to make news out of one but not the other. Posted by Leroy Towns

The trouble with the many promises that President Obama cannot possibly keep is that broken promises breed cynicism at a time when government, more than ever, needs popular support.

Voters thought it sounded swell that Candidate Obama was going to run lobbyists out of Washington, or at least out of his administration. Trouble is, American citizens have a constitutional right to petition their government. Lobbyists are designated agents to do that. It is a vital and necessary profession. Lobbyists convey important information to Congress and the administration, which are fully capable of viewing that information critically.  Lobbyists, for one group or another, represent almost every North Carolina citizen in Washington, from lawyers and farmers to accountants and union members.

Thus, it was no surprise to anyone that a day or two into his administration President Obama started backpedalling on the promises and people with lobbyist in their background started appearing all across the administration.

Now, the Obama Administration and national Democrats have devised a scheme to get around the promise not to raise money from lobbyists. Politico reports:

President Barack Obama’s strict ban on lobbyist contributions will limit the haul from Thursday night’s fundraising dinner for congressional Democrats, but organizers have found a way around it: a morning-after event at the same hotel where lobbyists — and their money— will be welcomed with open arms.

It should be noted that there is nothing wrong with raising money from lobbyists, as long as it is accounted for under law and as long as it is not an exchange for official action. But Candidate Obama made an issue out of never accepting money from the lobby community. Now, faced with the real world, he is forced to resort to a cynical dodge to bring in the dollars.

So much for Candidate Obama’s promise that as President Obama he would change business as usual in Washington. Posted by Leroy Towns

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File this under the heading some politicians can never stop with the spin, even when it is grossly insincere.

In an interview with the Washington Post, reported by the N&O’s Rob Christensen, John Edwards claims not to care about his shattered reputation:

“The two things I’m on the planet for now are to take care of the people I love and to take care of people who cannot take care of themselves,” Edwards said.

Please.

Posted by Leroy Towns

In the midst of intense conduct investigations of former Governor Mike Easley, it is clear that Governor Beverly Purdue presents a new way forward in terms of access to records and transparency in Raleigh. Perdue ordered the release of records that had been kept closed for ‘security reasons’ throughout Easley’s term. The release of these records played a major role in the N&O’s investigation of Easley’s conduct and the situation at NC State.

Perdue promised a new way forward when she took office; she started with a splash and seems to be continuing in the same vein. To date, she has signed five Executive Orders (numbers 1,2,3,4 and 10) having to do with transparency and accountability; most notably creating NC Open Book which requires the online publishing of all contracts and grants above $10,000. Most of the media personnel I interviewed for a research project believe she is following through on her promise of open governance; her frequent surprise visits and her general availability to the media have been appreciated and are in stark contrast to Easley.

Reporters who cover her are quick to point out, however, that being cooperative with the press is ultimately in her best interest (case in point: Easley).  In cooperation, surprises are avoided; you know where the reporters’ stories are going. Perdue has received relatively little ‘bad press’ to date. In terms of openness, she seems to be doing what voters wanted. Many are wondering how long this honeymoon period will last, though.

Interestingly, I tried for weeks to get information from Perdue’s press office for research I was conducting, but was repeatedly ignored. I was continually told someone would return my requests for information via email, but my emails were never returned. With all the hype around transparency and accessibility, I would have hoped someone would have taken the ten minutes to speak with me. Unfortunately, it looks like not all things have changed. Posted by Sumi Krishnan, JOMC MA

Ryan Teague Beckwith, the driving force behind the N&O’s Under the Dome column/blog, is leaving to join the Roll Call organization in Washington, DC. Those of us in North Carolina who need and want political and state government news will miss the big daily fix he provided over the last two years.

Dome will continue with several good N&O and Charlotte Observer reporters, but it was Beckwith who provided a distinct flavor to the blog without letting his own personality get in the way of delivering up-to-date and interesting political news. Dome readers know that it was not unusual to see Beckwith posting updates over long hours. If he wasn’t a 24/7 presence, it was close. On his busiest day, May 6-7, 2008, Beckwith and interns posted 83 news items. In just over two years as of Friday, Dome had 9,735 posts. That is a lot of state political news that probably would not have existed without Dome.

Alan Murray of the Wall Street Journal gave this year’s JOMC Park Lecture and told UNC students reporters of the future will have to help bring audiences to their news organizations.

Beckwith worked on getting an audience. In an email interview, he reflected on what it’s like to start a new way of presenting political news from scratch:

In the beginning, I spent a lot of time e-mailing links to other North Carolina political bloggers and reporters to try to bring their audience over to us and swap blogroll mentions. After a while, I spent less time reaching out locally and more time trying to get links on national blogs. I had particular success with Ben Smith during the 2008 primary, but the most hits came from niche sites that specialized in counting superdelegates or tracking Senate races.

I think that is one of the crucial differences for blogger-reporters. In the old days, we set up all kinds of walls between marketing and editing and reading the Associated Press and opinion and business, but those distinctions may now hinder a reporter working primarily online. My job often entailed reporting on an event, summarizing what others had reported, linking to interesting material elsewhere online, promoting my material to other reporters and bloggers, highlighting what people thought about it and tending to a debate in our own comments. Other bloggers even sell ads on their sites, though I would hope not to have to go that far.

As I’ve said before, the biggest difference between traditional newspaper reporting and online reporting is that readers/users treat you as an individual, not an institution. That meant that I faced a lot more personal criticism for my reporting and editing decisions but it also meant I had more influence and perhaps more credibility, too.

Between April 2008 and April 2009, Dome had 838,000 hits–a 46 percent increase over its first year. It is projected to get 2.6 million hits this year, Beckwith says. Dome is one of the most popular blogs at the N&O, sometimes even edging out sports. When political news becomes as interesting to readers as sports news, you know it is successful.

In DC, Beckwith will be deputy editor of Congress.org, part of the Roll Call group. Its specialty is covering Congress and the Federal government. Beckwith will be missed in North Carolina. He is one of a new group of pioneering young reporters and editors who is reinventing the way news is reported and presented. Posted by Leroy Towns

In the weeks before the 2008 NC election for governor last fall, the UNC community (maybe communities on other campuses as well) pushed the panic button. Democrat Beverly Perdue had inspired little passion and polls gave Republican Pat McCrory a chance to win. 

The Carolina rumor mill went into high gear. Across campus and at nearly every gathering the word was frightening: if McCrory wins, there will be an immediate 10 percent cut in the budget and layoffs across the university. Further, it was said, McCrory cares little about Carolina; Perdue is “one of our own.”

Fast forward to January. The governor, announcing a dire budget situation, ordered cuts of 7 percent. More cuts and furloughs were announced later as the Legislature took up the issue.

Reality check: It was brand new Gov. Beverly Perdue doing the cuts.

In politics today, never underestimate the power of old fashioned social networks. They work even when voters get it half right. Posted by Leroy Towns