Most administrations want their people to stay ‘on message’ but they usually only worry about parts of the government that are obviously political. The Bush administration seems to believe everything is political and should be controlled. The latest evidence is in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Christopher Jensen of the NY Times went to a NHTSA expert to see about something and found:
when I asked to talk to an N.H.T.S.A. researcher about some technical safety issues in which he had a great deal of expertise. Agency officials told me I could talk to the expert on a background basis, but if I wanted to use any information or quotes from him, that would have to be worked out later with a N.H.T.S.A. official.
…
As an alternative I was told I could interview Ms. Nason on the record (instead of the expert on the subject of my article). I declined, failing to see how her appointment as administrator — she was trained as a lawyer — made her a expert in that subject.
It even gets a little surreal:
When I said I would like to talk to Ms. Nason on the record about her no-attribution policy, she was not available.
…
Ms. Nason felt it was necessary for N.H.T.S.A. to have a “central spokesperson” and “we were finding a lot of stuff did not need to be on the record,” David Kelly, her chief of staff, told me. He also insisted, after our telephone conversation, that he did not want to be quoted and had intended to speak only on background. (My notes show no such request.)
As I said, most administrations want to control as much as possible but most would not try this type of stuff because it makes them look silly. I guess Bush doesn’t worry about stuff like that.
Filed under: craziness, nation, politics, reporting, science
