President Obama finally and quietly accepted his “transparency” award from the open government community this week — in a closed, undisclosed meeting at the White House on Monday.
The secret presentation happened almost two weeks after the White House inexplicably postponed the ceremony, which was expected to be open to the press pool.
This time, Obama met quietly in the Oval Office with Gary Bass of OMB Watch, Tom Blanton of the National Security Archive, Danielle Brian of the Project on Government Oversight, Lucy Dalglish of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and Patrice McDermott of OpenTheGovernment.org, without disclosing the meeting on his public schedule or letting photographers or print reporters into the room.
“Our understanding going into the meeting was that it would have a pool photographer and a print reporter, and it turned out to be a private meeting,” Bass told POLITICO.
The transparency advocates who presented the award to Obama say that the recognition is important, because despite the work left to be done, Obama has done a lot to change the government’s posture toward openness issues.
But others believed the positive reinforcement was more than a little unnecessary.
“I don’t feel moved today to say ‘thank you, Mr. President,’” said Steve Aftergood, the director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists. But he said he understands the award to be “aspirational,” in recognition of Obama’s potential to do more on the transparency front.
“And in that sense, one could say it resembles the award at the Nobel Peace Prize,” Aftergood said. “It’s not because Obama brought peace to anyone but because people hoped he would be a force for good in the world, and maybe that’s the way to understand this award.”
Posted by Spencer Jones 
Did You Get Your Obama Bullshit Decoder Ring Yet?
April 13, 2011“I promise 100% transparency in my administration.”
“I will allow 5 days of public comment before I sign any bills.”
“I will remove earmarks for PORK projects before I sign any bill.”
“I will end Income Tax for seniors making less than $50K a year”
“I’ll put the Health Care negotiations on C-SPAN so everyone can see who is at the table!”
“I’ll have no lobbyists in my administration”
Did you get your decoder ring yet?
Me neither. Demand is too great…