January 06, 2010

Transparency = Opacity

“T

ransparency” has become the codeword for “I’m lying.” I began to notice it first from the mouth of President Obama. Then this bizarro-world definition of the word transparency found its way into proclamation from the pulpits of disingenuous church leaders. And then wormed its way into the world of corporate memos. It’s hard for me to believe that the American public is still allowing the Democratic Senate, House, and Executive to still claim transparency.

In response to Nancy Pelosi’s claim that “There has never been a more open process for any legislation in anyone who’s served here’s experience,” C-SPAN’s CEO Brian Lamb has written to the House and Senate encouraging them to open the Healthcare debate to the public view.

The C-SPAN networks will commit the necessary resources to covering all of the sessions LIVE and in their entirety

C-SPAN remembers many of the claims of transparency proferred during the presidential campaign a little more than a year ago. And they are now calling the bluff. You may read about it here: C-SPAN Challenges Congress to Open Health Care Talks to TV Coverage, and you may refresh your memory regarding these claims here:

Now—contact your senator and congressmen and demand true transparency. Not the newly defined version of transparency, which apparently means anything but transparency.

 

2 comments:

  1. George Orwell called it "Newspeak." The "Ministry of Truth" is where the facts are deleted, created, or modified to manipulate public perceptions or sentiment toward the desired political goals. Other words that can be placed in that category include "openness" (means "we have nothing to hide because we deny the existence of what we don't want you to know"), "accountability" (means "we can do what we want and you have no right to criticize because we won the election"), "debate" (means "we won't listen to your argument because we've already decided what we're going to do"), "bipartisan" (means "you can propose your amendments but we've already decided to reject them"), and the phrases "overseas contingency operations" and "deficit neutral spending" etc.

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  2. So true, Dean. So true. I remember reading Orwell in high school and having no clue as to how accurate he was in his predictions and observations.

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