Transparent government more vital than ever
As much of the nation hunkers down into what could be a prolonged stretch of self-quarantine, with many schools and offices closed indefinitely as the coronavirus crisis grows, we need more than ever to know we can rely on true, verifiable information from all levels of government.
Everyone has questions: How deadly is the virus? What is our level of risk? How long do we all need to stay at home? It is essential that government officials, who are entrusted with protecting the public good, are as transparent as they can be on the most important information.
In that regard, maybe it’s fitting that Sunday marks the start of Sunshine Week, an annual project meant to highlight the importance of open governance and the public’s right to know what public servants are doing with taxpayer dollars. That includes shedding light on corruption and mismanagement, but also a requirement that what the government tells us is true. It is necessary to the functioning of a democratic society that people are able to trust what the government says, especially in a time of crisis.
As we all know, that’s not always the case. According to Reuters news service, the White House ordered federal health officials to treat highlevel coronavirus meetings as classified, which had the effect of restricting information and potentially hampering the government’s response to the contagion. (The White House later denied the report.) Just as worrisome have been officials playing down the seriousness of the virus, with only drastic action in recent days on the part of private entities serving to jolt the public as to the enormity of the crisis. The U.S. is still far behind other countries in its rate of testing for the virus.
The picture on the local level has been better. In fact, it’s been the ground-level officials, including mayors, first selectmen and school superintendents, who are doing the best job keeping the public up to date. They don’t have all the answers, but no one does. What they need to do is tell constituents what they know, what they don’t know and when they’ll know more. That’s all anyone can ask.
Continuing with the theme of Sunshine Week, there’s no question the media itself can often be the subject of public opprobrium, usually with an accusation that a crisis is merely hype, or that the only purpose behind what the media publishes is to drive click rates. There’s no question that calamity attracts more interest than comparatively boring topics, but that’s not the driver of coverage. The point is to provide people the best, most accurate information so they can decide for themselves how seriously to take an issue. That becomes much more difficult when the government isn’t being truthful.
The scope of disruption around the coronavirus is unprecedented, but the underlying issues are familiar. We need to know what the government is doing and we need to be able to trust that we are being told the facts as accurately as is possible. Anything less than that can put people’s lives at risk.