Government Secrecy: Eroding Public Trust in the USA

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Many establishments will censor material that they suspect to be controversial, deleterious, or politically incorrect. This is especially true for institutions in the United States. The American government withholds information from the public that it believes is too sensitive to be disclosed. Government secrecy cripples its citizens’ trust of the government, the loyalty of its people, and the credibility of the nation.
The United States government often excuses its clandestinity using seemingly logical reasoning, but it ignores the fact that this secrecy erodes the citizens’ confidence in their leaders. For example, officials might claim that it is necessary to keep sensitive material confidential in the best interest of the nation’s security. …show more content…

While Richard Nixon was in office, investigative journalists discovered evidence of his administration spying on other politicians, wiretapping citizens without the authority to do so, and accepting bribes from corporations (“Watergate”). During the investigation, President Nixon refused to give tape recordings of conversations between him and his staff to attorney Archibald Cox, but when the incriminating tapes were finally surrendered, one of them had a suspicious eighteen minute gap in it. Some investigators assumed that “the White House was destroying evidence” (“Watergate”). The public was thoroughly shocked that the man that they had elected to lead their country had been involved in one of the most vexed scandals of the twentieth century. The United States still feels the effects of Watergate today because it “undermined the nation’s trust in its leaders and raised lasting debates about the Constitution and the powers of the presidency” …show more content…

At the beginning of his presidency, Obama stated: “’Government should be transparent. [My] administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government’” (“The Best Disinfectant”). This promise, however, is a far cry from reality. During his seven years in office, Obama has implemented the Open Government Directive, created the National Declassification Center (NDC), and websites like data.gov, recovery.gov, and foia.gov (“The Best Disinfectant”). Despite these efforts to promote transparency, the NDC, for example, has only released a “paltry twenty-two million of four-hundred million pages of classified data. The rate of classification remains far higher than the rate of declassification” (“The Best Disinfectant”). America’s citizens and allies that had hoped for more candor within the government have been disappointed. In addition to these weak programs, the Obama administration has “indicted six whistleblowers under the Espionage Act for leaking information to the press- twice as many as all of the past administrations combined” (“The Best Disinfectant”). This proves that Obama’s promise to make the government more transparent was merely a façade that he used to gain support in his search for power. With deceitful leaders like Obama, the credibility of America can only

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