This comes out of a recent report by the Center for Public Integrity that gave an "F" grade to the state for transparency in government. Joan Barron, writing in the Casper Star-Tribune, reports that the low grades went to the Wyoming Supreme Court and Governor Freudenthal’s office.
Says Brady:
Regardless, the problem of night swallowing up daylight in our state runs deeper than a couple of high-profile politicos playing hide the ball – excessive secrecy permeates nearly every rung of Wyoming public life right down to the county and local level.
Brady has theorized that Vice President Dick Cheney’s "obsessive penchant for secrecy and disdain for the meddling press was a byproduct of cutting his political teeth in Wyoming."
He could be right. Wyoming lacks an aggressive news-gathering corps that could insist on more transparency. When reporters alert the citizenry to transgressions, we don’t seem to pay attention. It’s almost as if we resent those who rake the muck because the muck is of the homegrown variety. Wyomingites tend to be very sensitive about exposing shortcomings in public. It’s an old sensitivity, one that comes with sparse population and a short stature on the national scene. Why is everybody always picking on us? We’ll take care of our own problems.
And then we don’t. Sometimes we export them, as we did with Dick Cheney. He’s always had a mania for secrecy. It’s not just a quirk. He really is hiding something, this time from the American people.
I look forward to Brady’s "Secrecy Watch."
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