Obama gets mixed grades on transparency

Everyone in government knows that President Obama is trying to make the federal government transparent. But with every success, there have been problems. An annual report card that measures the level of secrecy in the White House gives Obama mixed grades for his efforts, so far.

The report was released by Openthegovernment.org, which said there aren't enough indicators yet to compare the level of secrecy in the Obama White House to the Bush years. On the upside, the report pointed to Obama's memos from his first day in office telling agencies to rely on technology to create a more open government as a good thing. But the drive toward openness has created concerns about "transparency theater."

These transparency efforts could also be seen as growing pains, attempting to turn a promise into reality. Wherever you turn in government these days, transparency is underway. And it certainly will be interesting to see what the next report shows about how far government has come.

For more on transparency in government:
- check out this nextgov.com article