The media is aghast that President Trump is requiring approval for website posts, clamping down on the use of social media, freezing grants, and forbidding federal agencies from issuing news releases. Censorship! Information control! Orwellian thought police!
Well, it turns out, as even the New York Times now admits, this is routine practice during the transition from one administration to another. The same orders were handed down when the Obama administration replaced that of George W. Bush. As veteran federal workers are trying to explain, when new leadership comes into an agency, until it gets settled in, you hold off on your operations. Orders to do so have been coming not from Trump but from Obama-appointed agency heads.
But what about Trump coming down on the National Parks Service for the tweets about how his inaugural crowd was smaller than Obama’s? Read the whole story about that and how agency transitions work after the jump.
From Michael Bastasch, Veteran Feds Call Reaction Trump Gag Order ‘Overblown’ | The Daily Caller:
“Trump silences government scientists with gag orders,” the Verge reported. The Guardian wrote “Trump bans agencies from ‘providing updates on social media or to reporters.’”
But veteran federal employees disagreed. Those who spoke to the New York Times said the Trump administration acted no differently than the Obama administration did when taking over the reins of government in 2009.
NYT reports:
“I’ve lived through many transitions, and I don’t think this is a story,” an unnamed senior EPA employee told NYT. “I don’t think it’s fair to call it a gag order.”
“This is standard practice,” the employee said. “And the move with regard to the grants, when a new administration comes in, you run things by them before you update the website.”. . .
Concern over gag orders came as official government social media accounts supposedly went rogue in defiance of Trump.
First, the National Park Service retweeted two posts seen as casting a bad light on Trump. The Park Service temporarily suspended its tweeting before apologizing Saturday. Then, the National Hurricane Center shared an anti-Trump Facebook post, apologized for it, then deleted the apology.
Badlands National Park tweeted a series of global warming-related posts that had little to do with its mission. Reporters and celebrities were quick to back this “rogue” national park fighting back against Trump.
That turned out not to be true. The National Park Service said a former employee gained access to their Twitter account, and that they took the tweets down on their own. The Trump administration did not order them to take down the tweets.
Illustration: From SpreadJesus.org, Creative Commons License
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