January 27, 2009

My letter to the White House

By: AF Editors

As Mary Katharine noted, the Obama White House still hasn’t posted transcripts of spokesman Robert Gibbs’ daily press briefings. I’m equally perturbed that the White House hasn’t even been posting transcripts of President Obama’s remarks. This morning, I had to go to the HuffPo to find a transcript of Obama’s interview with Al-Arabiya.

I figure it’s only a matter of time before the transcripts go up. Before the creation of the Webernet and the Google, the White House printed transcripts every week. The Bush White House put up transcripts like clockwork. This is too basic for the Obama White House to miss. Yet interestingly, the inaugural post on the White House blog had this to say about transparency:

Transparency — President Obama has committed to making his administration the most open and transparent in history, and WhiteHouse.gov will play a major role in delivering on that promise. The President’s executive orders and proclamations will be published for everyone to review, and that’s just the beginning of our efforts to provide a window for all Americans into the business of the government.

Notice — no reference to transcripts. So, since the White House has made a deep commitment to communication with voters, I decided to hit the “Contact Us” button and see if sending them an e-mail makes any difference. Here’s what I wrote:

Dear White House Staff,

When will transcripts of President Obama’s public statements be available on your website? For a decade now, transcripts of public statements by the President have been made available to the public online within one or two days. I hope you intend to continue this tradition. It is an essential component of transparency.

Sincerely,
A. David Adesnik
Washington, DC

See? Very friendly.