White House.Gov Was Better Under Bush
I read this tonight on BlogNetNews Ohio and decided I would add my two cents to my first disappointment with the Obama Administration.
The “Briefing Room” sucks. I say this as a fervent Obama supporter.
BlogNetNews’ David Mastio summed it up in the post linked above:
If bloggers agree on anything, it should be on the freedom of information — openness and accountability on the part of our government. The Obama administration has been getting a great ride with lots of promises to be more open than the Bush administration.
But maybe not so much … Obama’s people have stopped the tradition of posting transcripts of the daily press briefing. This is the most basic kind of public information, but failure to put it online means that bloggers can’t link to it and the administration’s history doesn’t build up over time.
Here’s what the White House press staff says about the briefing room:
The White House provides timely and accurate information about the President’s latest events and public statements. Here you’ll find photos, video, and blogs, as well as proclamations, executive orders, and press releases.
As Mastio says, “Not so much.”
The first couple of days of the Obama Administration, I had some misgivings about the site because it is organized in the manner of their campaign website’s media room. There’s a blog, with plenty of fluff. Press releases are even harder to find on the White House’s site (there aren’t any) than they were on the campaign’s site. During the campaign there were releases and statements going out all the time, but they were never all in one place. There were “statements” sent out to the national media to counter something the other side said, but those didn’t make it to the website and accessible to everyone. The campaign did get a lot of this information out in other ways – there were at least two Obama “setting the record straight” websites, but why not just put it all in one place? If you can send it to the boys and girls on the bus, why not make it available to everyone? (Bloggers …)
This White House site seems like a lot of eye candy and no substance. As a consumer over the past several months of the Bush White House press site, there’s no comparison. Dana Perino’s daily press briefings were transcribed and posted in a timely manner. Additionally, “press gaggles” which were conducted by Perino or other White House talkers were also transcribed and posted. All of President Bush’s speeches were made available as prepared for delivery or as transcripts. Each day you could see the public events of the president and there were background fact sheets. Albeit they were Bush Administration bullshit, but at least they were putting it out there.
It’s one thing to support a candidate during a campaign and accept the rah, rah website. I think we deserve a more serious attempt at transparency – ie. more information – and less eye candy and marketing from an elected official engaged in the serious business of fighting two wars, proposing the biggest stimulus bill in history, probably nationalizing banks and trying to restore our “moral standing” in the world.
If the Obama communications team wants to dumb down information, they can save it for their blog. I’m hopeful we’ll see some serious original source information added to the Briefing Room and organized in a manner that puts transparency and accessibility before selling the Obama brand. I already bought that.
You have to be kidding? The present whitehouse.gov website is more organized than the previous one.
I’m not sure why you think there is fluff posted when Bush never cared about us as Obama does.
When did a politician care to hear your ideas about subjects and want to take those ideas into account?
You can’t name any. nuff said.
Bob – In my post I point out that most of what was coming out of the White House was BS, but at least they were putting their information out there. On the Obama site there are no transcripts, no area where on a daily basis original source documents (press releases, speeches, backgrounders, fact sheets, etc.) are posted. All we get is a marketing-heavy version of what’s going on. This isn’t an issue about which president cared the most about us. I’m hoping that President Obama will not be under served by a communications staff that is better at branding and message than they are at managing information in a transparent way …
Bob, I can’t believe that you think caring about us is enough.
If Republicans believe their guy cares for them and so they’ll accept half-truths, coverups and a lack of transparency and Democrats believe that their guy cares for them so they’ll accept half-truths, coverups and a lack of transparency, where will we be?
Not very well governed by politicians who don’t respect their constituents.
Bob, your emotions are driving you completely off point. Pelikan is pointing out that WhiteHouse.gov does not post press briefing transcripts. So much for being the “most open and accessible administration in American History”. I’m disappointed. At present, the WH “Briefing Room” blog only posts a few selective quotes from Gibbs. This is not “transparency” – it’s more like a blackout. Emotions aside, I thought the quickly posted transcripts from the Bush Admin daily Press Briefings were a great way to keep up with current events before the MSM spin. I was looking forward to this same service from the Obama Admin. As it is now, the WhiteHouse website is just O propaganda. The election is over. Just the facts please. Daily Press Briefing transcripts would be a great service to the American people.
Good news… I noticed today the daily White House Press Briefing transcripts are now available from the WH Briefing Room link:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing_room/PressBriefings/
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