Obama's Unfulfilled Promise of Transparency?

The article we're reading entitled "The First Internet President" brought up one of the advantages of new media in politics: transparency. This article written in the second month of Obama's presidency stated that Obama planned to take advantage of these media tools to run the most transparent administration in history. Has he lived up to that promise? Most people would disagree.

It's fitting that we're reading this article now as mid-March is Sunshine Week - a week dedicated to educating the public about the importance of open government and the dangers of excessive and unnecessary secrecy.

According to a recent NPR article, Obama did fulfill some of what he promised. For the first time the size of the U.S. nuclear weapons aresnal was revealed. Also half of the 90 government agencies have changed their approach to sharing information for a more open policy. But is this enough? The article also points out that the Department of Housing and Urban Development had asked lobbyists to sign nondisclosure agreements if they wanted to take part in talks about rental housing. This seems like the exact opposite of transparency.

The article quotes Steven Aftergood, government secrecy expert on the issue: "Expectations were raised so high at the beginning of the administration that some disappointment was almost inevitable." So is the issue that Obama made such a lofty promise and failed to deliver? Can we even expect complete openness from any administration? (I mean, consider the government scandals we know about then think about how many we are probably unaware of.) Because of new media and the ability to have transparent governments, should we hold politicians to higher standards?