$70,000 Pentagon "Right To Know" Video Censored

[jeffrey]

$70,000 Pentagon "Right To Know" Video Censored - Story Here

The Defense Department spent $70,500 to produce a Humphrey Bogart-themed video called "The People's Right to Know" to teach employees to respond to citizen requests for information. But when it came to showing the tape to the public, the Pentagon censored some of the footage.

Officials said they blacked out parts of the training video with the message, "copyrighted material removed for public viewing," because they were worried the government didn't have legal rights to some historical footage that was included.

Citing the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, The Associated Press asked the Pentagon for a copy of the video nearly 18 months ago. The Defense Department released an edited version of the tape and acknowledged the irony of censoring a video promoting government openness.

"We knew it would be embarrassing," said Suzanne Council of the Army Office of the Chief Attorney, which gave advice to censor the scenes because of copyright concerns.

The 22-minute video features a trenchcoat-clad narrator resembling Sam Spade, the detective played by Bogart in the 1941 classic "The Maltese Falcon." The narrator follows mysterious characters known only as "veiled lady" and "large man" as he describes Pentagon rules under the open records law, which mandates disclosure of most federal documents, e-mails, photographs and videotapes...