Influential New York Times tech reviewer David Pogue might have done some damage to his reputation by not immediately disclosing his relationship with Nicki Dugan, vice president of San Francisco’s OutCast Agency PR firm. Dugan’s firm happens to represent tech companies of which you may have heard. Like, oh, Facebook.

President Obama received an award from a group of transparency advocates for making the government more open to the public. However, since the ceremony itself was closed to the press, some may wonder whether the honor was awarded a bit premature? Supporters of the decision to honor Obama suggest it is similar to the rationale [...]

President Barack Obama would had planned on accepting an award from the recognizing “his deep commitment to an open and transparent government—of, by, and for the people” in conjunction with something called “Sunshine Week.” While the award ceremony has since been canceled, the recognition of transparency for this White House has predictably become a political football, kicked back and forth by partisan pundits of every political stripe. Case in point? Charles Krauthammer, who compared this award to another controversial laurel received by Obama: his Nobel Peace Prize.

Did Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have a responsibility to step down from their posts as Fox News contributors the moment each knew he’d campaign for the Republican presidential nominee? That’s the question Davidson Goldin, who was formerly an editorial director of MSNBC and a political anchor for NY1, is posing in The New York Times.

Part of the Republican surge this year stemmed from the GOP’s censure of President Obama—who once promised to make his administration to be the “most open and transparent in history”—for not being open and transparent enough, particularly regarding healthcare reform. As such, C-SPAN’s current proposal to presumptive House Speaker John Boehner should be an offer Republicans can’t refuse: an increase in the number and scope of press cameras in the House chamber.

The kinds of people who get giddy about the C-SPAN archives going online came together in Washington to launch an effort to encourage the public to become more involved in advocating for greater transparency in government.

Last week’s health care summit was largely the result of outrage over the lack of promised transparency in health care reform. While that criticism focused on conference negotiations over the health care bill, the true failure of transparency occurred in the spring and summer of 2009, as the White House met with leaders from the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries. I asked Robert Gibbs about it Friday. Listen carefully to what I asked, and to his response:

When Barack Obama‘s campaign pledge of a transparent and C-SPAN covered debate over health care reform failed to materialize, he was fairly pilloried by both right and left-wing critics. Since then, he’s invited party leaders – and C-SPAN cameras – for a White House health care negotiation. Last night House Minority leader John Boehner sat down with Greta Van Susteren to discuss this and sounded pretty skeptical of the political theater.

CNN’s Jack Cafferty carved out at a unique spot for himself during the Bush administration –while the rest of his network peers stayed away from the opinion media fray, Cafferty was consistently one of Bush’s fiercest critics, and often got labeled “liberal” by Cafferty’s critics. But any expectations that the Obama administration would reveal a kinder and gentler Cafferty have been wrong, evidenced by the following clip after the jump.

The sparks kicked up by C-Span’s request to televise healthcare negotiations have erupted into a firestorm, as White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was grilled about the President’s campaign promise of complete transparency, and responded testily. CNN’s Jack Cafferty delivered a stinging j’accuse to President Obama, calling the pledge a “lie just to get elected.”

Although most news operations seem more concerned with transparency as it relates to our clothing at airport scanners these days, the White House is taking fire anew over the President’s campaign pledge to strip-search healthcare negotiations in full view of the public. There may be good, reasonable answers to these questions, but what the White House gave us yesterday isn’t it.

Many are extremely happy to see this year come to a close, but we shouldn’t confuse the roller coaster with what is actually a stunning conjunctural moment. 2009 was a year riddled with the collisions of many different trajectories — and they all collided with techology. More than anything, this was the Year of Transparency.

On Monday night’s “Countdown,” Keith Olbermann granted the Worst Persons gold to a quartet of conservative figures for jumping the gun when tweeting about White House visitors on Friday. Mediaite has exclusive reactions from three of them: Amanda Carpenter, Mary Katherine Ham, and Ed Morrissey. Why? Mostly because we can.