[Infowarrior] - What ¹ s Off the Record at N.H.T.S.A.? Almost Everything

[Richard Forno]

August 22, 2007,  12:07 pm
What¹s Off the Record at N.H.T.S.A.? Almost Everything

By Christopher Jensen

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/22/whats-off-the-record-at-nhtsa-alm
ost-everything/

If you want to know something as simple as who heads the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration, don¹t bother to ask the safety agency¹s
communications office. Without special permission, officials there are no
longer allowed to provide information to reporters except on a background
basis, which means it cannot be attributed to a spokesman.

Without such attribution, there are few circumstances under which most
reporters will report such information. This makes for interesting dealings
with the office charged with providing information about the nation¹s top
automotive safety agency.

So, I will end the suspense about the boss¹s identity. The administrator is
Nicole R. Nason, who took over on May 31, 2006, after she was appointed to
the post by President Bush.

And it is she who put the big hush on one of the government¹s most important
safety agencies. I found this out recently when I asked to talk to an
N.H.T.S.A. researcher about some technical safety issues in which he had a
great deal of expertise. Agency officials told me I could talk to the expert
on a background basis, but if I wanted to use any information or quotes from
him, that would have to be worked out later with a N.H.T.S.A. official. The
arrangement struck me as manipulative, and I declined to agree to it.
Nicole R. NasonNicole R. Nason took over as N.H.T.S.A. chief in 2006.
(Photograph by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

It seems that Ms. Nason has adopted a policy that has blocked virtually all
of her staff ‹ including the communications office ‹ from providing any
information to reporters on the record, which means that it can be
attributed.

As an alternative I was told I could interview Ms. Nason on the record
(instead of the expert on the subject of my article). I declined, failing to
see how her appointment as administrator ‹ she was trained as a lawyer ‹
made her a expert in that subject.

When I said I would like to talk to Ms. Nason on the record about her
no-attribution policy, she was not available.

The agency¹s new policy effectively means that some of the world¹s top
safety researchers are no longer allowed to talk to reporters or to be
freely quoted about automotive safety issues that affect pretty much
everybody.

³My God,² said Joan Claybrook, who was N.H.T.S.A. administrator from 1977 to
1981 and is now president of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group.
Given that N.H.T.S.A. is the leading source of automotive safety information
in the United States, its researchers are public officials and people are
entitled to ³know what information they have, whether it is on paper or in
their heads,² Ms. Claybrook said.

The policy of allowing information to be attributed only to political
appointees is intermittently enforced around other parts of the Department
of Transportation, including the Federal Railroad Administration. But it is
a radical change from the way N.H.T.S.A has operated for at least 20 years.
In the past, reporters could talk to its experts and the agency was proud to
discuss its research and accomplishments.

Ms. Nason felt it was necessary for N.H.T.S.A. to have a ³central
spokesperson² and ³we were finding a lot of stuff did not need to be on the
record,² David Kelly, her chief of staff, told me. He also insisted, after
our telephone conversation, that he did not want to be quoted and had
intended to speak only on background. (My notes show no such request.)

So that central spokesperson is Ms. Nason, whose previous job was assistant
secretary for governmental affairs in the Department of Transportation. ³In
that position, she was responsible for oversight of congressional affairs,
coordinating all legislative and nonlegislative relationships between the
D.O.T. and Congress,² according to her N.H.T.S.A. biography. If she has any
experience in keeping a Congressman from skidding out of control, that could
come in handy now that she is speaking for an entire agency of seasoned
safety experts.