WHEN IS AN OPEN SECRET NEWS?

WHEN IS AN OPEN SECRET NEWS? Yesterday I linked a New York Times editorial that described a Washington Post report on Congressman Murtha’s activities and deplored those activities. The editorial used the phrase “an open secret that drew no great attention” to describe these activities. For almost every reader of the Times or the Washington Post, these activities were not an open secret. Readers have no chance to know about these things unless the media give great attention to this kind of thing. Malcolm Gladwell makes a similar point here about how Enron’s disclosures were an open secret until analysts paid a great deal of attention. Mandatory disclosure of lobbying and earmarking activity is useless without publicity and analysis.