“An attitudinal sea change. I think that's the hardest one to fix. Presidential directives, bills, provisions can all be rescinded, repealed, amended, but attitudes linger. The hardest thing is going to be to try to reverse an attitude, a bunker mentality that equates secrecy with either security or heightened efficiency and that regards transparency as an invitation to mischief and trespass. This default position of operating in the shadows is going to be somewhat appealing to whomever inherits office.” ThinkingTryingAttitudeSeaSecurityPositionOfficeShadowRegardBillsHardestPresidentialMentalityReverseEfficiencyHardest ThingInvitationsSecrecyTransparencyProvisionMischiefDefaultBunkersSea Change Author:Ted Gup
“And fourthly there is a major shift in public opinion and attitude to accommodate to the post-9/11 mentality and the Bush administration's penchant for secrecy. I think the public has simply become increasingly accustomed to being turned away from vital information and is protesting less and less. You have some squeaky wheels out there, but I don't think they're representative of the population at large.” ThinkingAttitudeOpinionInformationMajorsPopulationAdministrationPostsWheelsMentalityRepresentativesAccustomedPublic OpinionSecrecyAccommodateSqueaky Wheel Author:Ted Gup
“I don't think that the problems or the issues relate to any single piece of legislation. I think that they really do relate to the mindset that after eight years is pretty deeply embedded. It is not going to be easy to reverse itself.” ThinkingYearsProblemEasyIssuesPiecesEightMindsetRelateReverseLegislationEmbedded Author:Ted Gup
“I don't think the question is if should we have a shield law. I think the question is what kind of shield law we should have. Yes, I'd like to see a federal shield law, but if and only if it provides genuine safeguards and doesn't green-light prosecutors and judges and litigants from going after the press and getting things to which they should not be entitled. It's not a simple kind of litmus test.” IfsThinkingShouldKindLightLawSimpleJudgingShould HaveTestsGreenPressesGenuineEntitledShieldsProsecutorIfs AndGreen Lights Author:Ted Gup
“If all these guys think that nothing is going to come out for 100 years, they're going to act a whole lot more boldly. So we need to get back into the declassification business. This notion of overclassification is not just a bleeding-heart liberal issue. When everything is classified, nothing is classified.” IfsThinkingNeedsYearsHeartWholeGuyIssuesNotionGet BackBleedingBleeding Heart Author:Ted Gup
