White House Chronicle

News Analysis With a Sense of Humor

  • Home
  • King’s Commentaries
  • Random Features
  • Photos
  • Public Speaker
  • WHC Episodes
  • About WHC
  • Carrying Stations
  • ME/CFS Alert
  • Contact Us

The Gatekeepers Are Running the Government

August 12, 2016 by White House Chronicle 2 Comments

There must be a special place in hell for the gatekeepers — with a special circle for the Washington gatekeepers. These nonentities man the gates in Washington and, by design or simple obduracy, pervert the purposes of government.

They also fuel the lobbying industry. The name of that game is “access” and it is sold openly. If you have worked on Capitol Hill or in a cabinet secretary’s office, bingo! You have access.

Chances are the general public, journalists or others who need to speak to the principals, whether elected or appointed, will not get a look in because of the gatekeepers: those busybodies who take it upon themselves to affect things by blocking messages or meetings.

In Washington at present, the gatekeepers have more power than I have seen in 50 years. You have the constitutional right to petition your elected and appointed officials. But that right is abrogated if you cannot get through the door.

That is where the lobbyists come in; they can get through the door and influence the principals.

None of this is new, but there is a new dimension. Time was when you could get into federal buildings and walk around. That meant you had a chance of literally bumping into people you might want to buttonhole. Now surly guards demand appointments and IDs. A chance encounter with an assistant secretary is no longer in the cards.

There are channels that are harder for the new face to navigate than for those who have “access.” As most of us do not have this means of entry, we must settle for not being heard or getting routine rejection from the staffer manning the gate.

I have never known a time when the bureaucracy was so indifferent to the public when it comes to access. If a reporter does not cover a particular department regularly, your request for an interview will be sidelined or ignored. And if you represent a publication that does not have the weight of The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal, you will be dismissed.

Friends of mine work who for a charity dealing with a terrible and under-reported disease, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, have found the gatekeepers not only unhelpful but obstructionist at the Department of Health and Human Services and its agency, the National Institutes of Health.

When I managed reporters in Washington, I urged them to find ingenious ways around the gatekeepers, such as riding back and forth on the subway that carries members from the Capitol to their office buildings. Eventually, you would have a word with a congressman. And, surprise, surprise, he or she would be happy to oblige, unaware of the barriers erected around them by their gatekeepers. I have known senators who would sit in their offices hoping to see a new face, while their staffers turned them away.

Unfortunately, the phenomenon of out-of-control gatekeeping is not confined to the government and Congress. It is now rampant throughout society.

But it is the isolation of government from the people that is damaging and pernicious. It is that which creates and feeds the wrongs of lobbying and establishes the power of the elites.

Officialdom knows that saying “no” has more power than saying “yes.” The gatekeepers, who decide who should be heard and who should be denied, have always been with us. Witness the courts of Europe.

To get around the Washington gatekeepers, here are some extreme measures:

  • Get a home address for the person you want to talk to — there are many services that will sell you armfuls of personal information, including home address and telephone numbers.

  • Join the person’s church — public piety is in.

  • Go wild on social media — shame the person.

You could, I suppose, try sending a drone with a message through the window of the unfortunate one you have been denied access to. But I would not advise that, just yet.  — For InsideSources

Email, RSS Follow
Email

Filed Under: King's Commentaries

Comments

  1. Steve Flinn says

    August 20, 2016 at 3:42 am

    I’m trying to get a message to you myself, but your website and vimeo are seemingly gatekeepers set up to prevent it. !!

    Really what I wanted to do was to share the full episode with Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz with my FaceBook friends. Many of them seem to require exactly the sort of education I received from this episode.

    Thank you in advance for your reply. And thank you for your work in general!

    Reply
    • Linda Gasparello says

      August 22, 2016 at 7:43 pm

      Then let us remove the gatekeepers! Our latest episode with Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz is on our website at http://whchronicle.com/?episodes=the-political-science-of-2016-with-shanna-pearson-merkowitz OR directly on Vimeo on https:

      . We were once in the habit of posting last week’s episode on Monday morning, but you’ll start to see them Sunday nights on Vimeo and our website. Thank you for the note Steven, and please if you are looking for anything else you may contact the show’s director Linda at whchronicle@gmail.com
      We appreciate your feedback.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

White House Chronicle on Social

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Vimeo
  • YouTube
Can Our Waterways Provide a New Source of Baseload Power?

Can Our Waterways Provide a New Source of Baseload Power?

Llewellyn King

This article first appeared on Forbes.com Virginia is the first state to formally press for the creation of a virtual power plant. Glenn Youngkin, the state’s Republican governor, signed the Community Energy Act on May 2, which mandates Dominion Energy to launch a 450-megawatt virtual power plant (VPP) pilot program. Virginia isn’t alone in this […]

The Problem of Old Leaders — Churchill’s Sad Last Years in Office

The Problem of Old Leaders — Churchill’s Sad Last Years in Office

Llewellyn King

Old age is a thorny issue. I can attest to that. As someone told my wife about me, “He’s got age on him.” Indubitably. The problem, as now in the venomously debated case of former president Joe Biden, is how to measure mental deterioration. When do you take away an individual’s right to serve? When […]

How Technology Built the British Empire

How Technology Built the British Empire

Llewellyn King

As someone who grew up in the last days of the British Empire, I am often asked how it was that so few people controlled so much of the world for so long? The simple answer is technology underpinned the British Empire, from its tentative beginnings in the 17th century to its global dominance in […]

Make Public Broadcasting Great Again by Shaking It Up

Make Public Broadcasting Great Again by Shaking It Up

Llewellyn King

The animus that has led President Trump to order an end to federal funding of PBS and NPR isn’t new. Public broadcasting has been an irritant to conservatives for a long time. Conservatives say public broadcasters are biased against them, especially PBS; they are a kind of ground zero for all things “woke”; and they […]

Copyright © 2025 · White House Chronicle Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in