GovernmentExecutive.com

I supppose I'm asking for trouble by raising questions related to an effort to increase access to government records. After all, as a card-carrying member of the mainstream media, I'm all in favor of as much openness in government as possible. But USA Today's story today about a nationwide poll conducted for media organizations promoting "Sunshine Week" is one of those pieces that may say less than meets the eye. The story highlights the eye-popping statistic that 70 percent of respondents to the poll were either "somewhat concerned" or "very concerned" about government secrecy. It then notes that a bill is pending in the Senate to revise the federal Freedom of Information Act "to address many of the open-government complaints." But only several paragraphs later does it become clear that most of the complaints are either from people who don't know much about government records access at all, or whose experience is limited to state and local agencies. Less than a third of respondents said they had sought government records about themselves, and of those, only one in 10 had sought information from a federal agency.