The secretiveness of the current administrations of what are, for New Yorkers, the two most prominent and important governments in the country — the federal government and the state government of New York — should be cause for alarm.
Transparency is one of those issues that transcends political party, with neither Republicans nor Democrats holding a claim to being more transparent and both showing a tendency toward secretiveness, at least when they’re in power.
The administration of Barack Obama is known among journalists trying to cover it for the tight control it keeps on information and its preference for keeping secrets rather than following the open government traditions enshrined in our Constitution.
Likewise, the administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo has become notorious for a ceaseless effort to filter and shape the messages coming out of Albany rather than allowing a free flow of information to the state’s citizens from its government.
We are, this coming week, celebrating Sunshine Week, when we reiterate our belief in the primacy of the First Amendment to the Constitution in keeping government honest and curbing the tendency of the powerful to abuse their positions….
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