Posted by
EWRoss on Monday, August 10, 2009 7:00:00 AM
I have to
wonder how many people have reported my columns critical of Democratic
healthcare proposals to the White House. If you think this week's, last week's,
or my July 20 columns contain "fishy" information about healthcare
reform, you may be one of them.
On August 3, former ABC and CBS reporter Linda Douglass appeared in a video on the White House website asking anyone who came across
"fishy" information about Democratic healthcare proposals on the web
or in an email to send that information to flag@whitehouse.gov.
Many people have questioned this tactic, some say it's illegal and a violation
of the 1974 Freedom of Information Act.
Whether
or not this is a violation of the law, I don't know. You would think that the
White House general counsel's office reviewed all this before the video was
posted on the web. Whether this tactic has a chilling effect on criticism of
the government in this day and age, also is questionable. What's certain is
that the person responsible for this initiative needs a vacation and a
refresher course on common sense. While such tactics may be appropriate for the
Democratic National Committee, they are unseemly for the White House. In the United States of America,
the government doesn't ask Americans to inform on their fellow citizens.
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