A press-protecting president is vital

CHAPEL HILL -- On Jan. 20, 2009, John McCain or Barack Obama will stand before the nation and swear to faithfully execute the office of the president and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. It is the most important contract in our democracy.

Barring an election stalemate, we should know the name of the next president by Nov. 5. What we won't know for certain is the winner's commitment to government transparency.

Now is the time to ask McCain and Obama how committed their administrations will be to preserving our constitutional freedoms -- including a free press. More than ever, the next president must work to keep the public informed on matters of national security, energy policy, immigration and other vital issues.

What would the Founding Fathers have to say about the current relationship between the executive branch and the media? During the past eight years, the Bush administration has fought to keep important government documents, records and transcripts from the news media.

As the legislative and judicial branches of government stood by, the expanding power of the presidency has gone largely unchecked. Secret government wiretaps and searches have increased more than 75 percent since 9/11. Journalists have been harassed and in some cases jailed for refusing to reveal confidential sources.

We are told that sacrificing some individual freedoms is the price we must pay to win the war on terror. But the move toward a more powerful presidency surrounded by government secrecy goes beyond the war on terror. What we don't know can hurt us.

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ON TOO MANY OCCASIONS THE PUBLIC AND THE MEDIA HAVE BEEN KEPT IN THE DARK about government records and important issues. We have been treated to stonewalling and excuses about the destruction of White House e-mails and hard drives and given fuzzy recollections of meetings about public policy. We were told about the CIA's destruction of secret videotapes documenting waterboarding only after the fact.

The complete record of the Energy Task Force, led by Vice President Dick Cheney, that helped shape current energy policy still has not been disclosed -- seven years later. Today we are more dependent on foreign oil and pay nearly $4 a gallon for gasoline. Cheney has also refused to comply with a federal requirement to file reports with the National Archives and Records Administration.

Keeping the public unaware of public proceedings appears to be the new government policy. This is unacceptable.

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RECENTLY A PUBLIC INFORMATION DIRECTOR AT ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY WAS FIRED for challenging the policy that limits media coverage of funerals of service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Limiting media coverage keeps the public from sharing in final tributes to those who made the ultimate sacrifice. It is also another reminder of government efforts to keep the public in the dark about the human cost of war.

The war in Iraq now costs approximately $10 billion per month. Still, it is only one of many important issues we look to the news media to cover. On the economic front, food and energy costs are rising. The mortgage crisis is worsening along with tightening credit. Government simply has not done a good job of explaining how we got to this point. Stiff-arming the media coverage has not helped.

The primary and general election seasons have seen a marathon of news reporting on the candidates. Thus far, both campaigns seem obsessed with convincing the electorate that their candidate would be the better commander-in-chief for the military. But which candidate better understands the importance of preserving freedom of the press?

The Framers of the Constitution championed a free and vigorous press, declaring that it is essential for citizens to make informed decisions about the future of the Republic.

Are we better informed today than we were eight years ago? If not, we are largely to blame for a lack of information. We need to get serious about holding whoever takes the presidential oath in the future accountable. The Constitution depends on it.