September 12, 2016 — The Society of Environmental Journalists joined some 40 other journalism groups in a letter [2] urging the White House to do more on improving the transparency of federal agencies. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest had recently claimed President Obama had a good record on transparency in an August 30 letter [3] to the New York Times. But journalism and open-government groups said plenty of problems remained — particularly press office interference with journalists' access to agency officials. See this WatchDog story. [4]