5 ms·
How interesting would you find an article detailing all the ways a reporter was told "No comment."? What kind of more lucid explanation would you consider accep
by Kalium 9y ago
How interesting would you find an article detailing all the ways a reporter was told "No comment."? What kind of more lucid explanation would you consider acceptable?
The NSA is, in many ways, a bureaucracy like many others. Odds are very good that the more lucid explanation is that some internal bureaucrat decided to convene a committee to review the Core Values, and after a multi-year review process the primary result was a minor website update.
Honestly, I'm bored just typing that. Do you think it would be interesting reading?
- pweissbrod 9y agotransparent government is boring but highly desirable. you could dismiss sytem logs or open source kernels are boring but youre greatful for them when unexpected things start happening
- Kalium 9y agoIndeed! You're absolutely right. And documents on this whole boring process could almost certainly be FOIA'd by anyone with a desire to be bored to death. But a spokesperson isn't likely to know the details of a minor verbiage update.
- ryandrake 9y agoI think the point was we're not talking about a "minor verbiage update." This isn't a wording correction on some TPS report fifty links deep within the Accessibility section. This is the public-facing expression of a major government agency's core values statement.
- Kalium 9y agoYou're right! This is a change to a major government agency's core values statement. I don't think I've ever been a place where public-facing statements about core values are considered important or major. They're generally treated as on par with mission statements or mottos - something nice to have but not particularly significant. I've even done government contracting, including for the NSA. Core values don't generally get checked on a regular basis much of anywhere. You're absolutely right. This is a change to the small public face of a major intelligence agency. Yet, I believe this is a minor verbiage update of no particular import.
- KingMob 9y agoI think the preferred phrase is actually "I can neither confirm nor deny that." My very first startup hired an ex-NSA sysadmin, and no joke, he was very good at deflecting jokey questions from a snarky 20 year-old me. He pointed out that "No comment" sounds slightly more like a denial to people, but "I can neither confirm nor deny that" seems more neutral and non-committal.
- brokenmachine 9y agoRadiolab did a really interesting podcast about that. http://www.radiolab.org/story/confirm-nor-deny/ http://www.radiolab.org/story/confirm-nor-deny/