Do you think gov'ts in general - country regardless - withhold information from the public? If yes, then Why

Answer 1

Yes, because an organization (government or private) will tend to circle the wagons and protect itself first regardless of the consequences overall.

Answer 2

Yes, funny part is they announce it before they do it.Not only wit hold, but lie, which is worse.

newspaper Article entitled

'Rumsfeld Warns Against Appeasement'
New York Times(who the white house hates)Dec2004

"WaSHINGTON, Dec. 12 - The Pentagon is engaged in bitter, high-level debate over how far it can and should go in managing or manipulating information to influence opinion abroad, senior Defense Department civilians and military officers say.

Such missions, if approved, could take the deceptive techniques endorsed for use on the battlefield to confuse an adversary and adopt them for covert propaganda campaigns aimed at neutral and even allied nations.

Critics of the proposals say such deceptive missions could shatter the Pentagon's credibility, leaving the American public and a world audience skeptical of anything the Defense Department and military say - a repeat of the credibility gap that roiled America during the Vietnam War.

The efforts under consideration risk blurring the traditional lines between public affairs programs in the Pentagon and military branches - whose charters call for giving truthful information to the media and the public - and the world of combat information campaigns or psychological operations.

The question is whether the Pentagon and military should undertake an official program that uses disinformation to shape perceptions abroad. But in a modern world wired by satellite television and the Internet, any misleading information and falsehoods could easily be repeated by American news outlets."

Answer 3

I am sure that all nations' governments withold information from the public.

The most justifiable reason is for security. The highest priority of Government (in the American system) is to defend the lives of The People. Some information, if leaked, would jeopardize those lives. Therefore, it must be witheld.

In a time of conflict, any information that would aid the enemy in harming The People should be witheld, including data on the effectiveness of enemy attacks, strategies for fighting the enemy, etc.

Answer 4

A better question would be 'does a government ever tell the country the truth?'. People have got to stop believing that governments are benevolent. They are not!! A government unchecked becomes a tyranny. That is the very nature of government. A wise man once said that the amount of tyranny a government imposes is perfectly proportionate to the amount the people will stand for.

Answer 5

Definately! Cause we don't need to know everything. People individually can use their brains but if a large group (say liberals?) gets a hold of something they could panic and do things that would most certainly do more harm than good.

Answer 6

Yes, so they can carry out their own agenda without public interference.

Answer 7

Of course they do. Have you ever noticed the U.S. policy that prohibits the coffins of dead U.S. soldiers from being shown? You see what they want you to see.

Answer 8

of course they do. we'd probably all panic if we knew what goes on within governments. its all a game of smoke and mirrors - mostly smoke.