September 27, 2011 8:41AM # A ‘Soviet-Style Power-Grab,’ to Squelch Bad Press for ObamaCare By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) --- SHARE The Department of Health and Human Services has released new [guidelines](http://www.hhs.gov/news/media_policy.html) on communications between department employees and the media. The guidelines evidently require all communications to be approved by the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs. Also: no off-the-record communications. The media are not happy. The editor of [FDA Webview](http://www.fdaweb.com) & [FDA Review](http://www.fdareview.com/) writes (via [Poynter](http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/romenesko/147295/health-human-services-media-policy-called-a-soviet-style-power-grab/); more [here](http://profficecensorship.blogspot.com/2011/09/hhs-puts-it-in-writing-staff-members_26.html)): > The new formal HHS Guidelines on the Provision of Information to the News Media represent, to this 36-year veteran of reporting FDA news, a Soviet-style power-grab. By requiring all HHS employees to arrange their information-sharing with news media through their agency press office, HHS has formalized a creeping information-control mechanism that informally began during the Clinton Administration and was accelerated by the Bush and Obama administrations. The U.S. now takes a large step toward joining other information-controlling countries like my native Australia, where government employees who talk with the news media without permission commit a federal crime. I came to the U.S. in 1974 to escape this oppression. The HHS guidelines once again show that the purpose of a public information office is not to disseminate information to the public but to withhold information from the public. Since this came on the heels of an HHS official [announcing](http://www.forbes.com/sites/aroy/2011/09/22/hhs-official-administration-is-shutting-down-class-obamacares-long-term-care-entitlement/) that the agency is scuttling [ObamaCare](https://www.cato.org/bad-medicine/)’s long-term care entitlement, a.k.a. the “CLASS Act,” one wonders if there is a connection. Or maybe HHS is just motivated by a general fear that the more the public learns about ObamaCare, the less we will like it. (Update: Turns out, HHS released their new guidelines the same day that agency official voiced his opinion about the future of the CLASS Act. HT: Chris Jacobs.) ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).