TPM Muckraker: "Bush Admin: What You Don't Know Can't Hurt Us"

[Ian_rd]

Hard work and actual journalism pay off again at TPM Muckraker. God, I love these guys!

With Bush Admin: What You Don't Know Can't Hurt Us, TPM makes an effort to list all known instances of the Bush administration hiding inconvenient information from the public that might damage our perception of their infallibility.

Excerpt:

Just how many different ways has the Bush Administration tried to hide once-public information sources from the public record? Help us count the ways.

On Friday, Justin discovered that the Department of Defense has suddenly classified the numbers of attacks in Iraq for September through November of this year -- after providing the figures for every month since the war began. Why classify the information now? If there's a good explanation, we don't know it, and the Pentagon isn't returning our calls.

As others have noted, it's far from the first time that the administration has tried to deep-six data that was unhelpful to its goals. Over the years, they've discontinued annual reports, classified normally public data, de-funded studies, quieted underlings, and generally done whatever was necessary to keep bad information under wraps.

...

* In March, the administration announced it would no longer produce the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation, which identifies which programs best assist low-income families, while also tracking health insurance coverage and child support.

* In 2005, after a government report showed an increase in terrorism around the world, the administration announced it would stop publishing its annual report on international terrorism.

* After the Bureau of Labor Statistics uncovered discouraging data about factory closings in the U.S., the administration announced it would stop publishing information about factory closings.

<snip>

and on and on ...

[izzie]

1. Been going on since Bush came in. Not shocked.

It is not the same country at all.

[enough]

2. No, not shocked, but I think the effect of putting all this together in one place

is pretty devastating, maybe enough to get some wider attention.