The author informs readers on what information is missing to journalists who are covering a major news story--due to the way the federal government releases its data. This is important because the missing information means only the most enterprising journalists will be able to provide information

Narayanswamy reports the bad situation of lack of transparency. It would be interesting to learn the law and administrative law that enables this secrecy.

short and to the point. It's the kind of thing that really doesn't seem to need to cite experts or sources since it *sounds* as though the writer went through the paces, but that's not clear.

This is a good, short article reviewing the web site for federal mine safety -- in terms of the accessiblity of the data. I hope other articles explore the context around this and the long term lack of transparency and access to key data about mining. This would be an excellent topic at this time. There are many problems that arise from the too close relationship between mining special interests and govt sectors. For instance, this article correctly refers to the lack of clarity or transparency re/ multiple owners. This is a long term problem -- see for instance the description & chart in Kai Erikson's book on the Buffalo Creek disaster. This article notes the difficulty in getting data to compare mines & patterns -- this ... More »