DC Bureau Chiefs Plan More Secrecy Coverage

If you are trying to shine a light on government secrecy, it helps to have the Washington bureau chief of a major news organization working on the project. Or better yet, 21 of them.

A new and swelling coalition of journalists seeking to open the federal government to more public scrutiny will be getting more eyes and ears. The Washington bureaus of many major news organizations are now planning to create a secrecy beat.

That was one upshot of a largely unpublicized luncheon at the National Press Club May 3, 2004, attended by the 21 bureau chiefs, as well as representatives from the First Amendment Center, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government. It was put together by Andy Alexander, DC bureau chief for Cox Newspapers and the new chair of the American Society of Newspaper Editors' FOI Committee.

An account of the meeting was published a month later in Editor and Publisher. "The real issue is telling our readers what it is they are not getting," Vickie Walton-James, theChicago Tribune's bureau chief told E&P. "We need to pay attention to this, and not just when a big case pops up."

-- "Media Vows to Pry Open Closed Doors in Washington," Editor and Publisher, June 3, 2004, by Joe Strupp.