Critical Study Minus Criticism of Justice Dept.

[MaineDem]

By DAVID JOHNSTON and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: October 31, 2003

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 — An internal report that harshly criticized the Justice Department's diversity efforts was edited so heavily when it was posted on the department's Web site two weeks ago that half of its 186 pages, including the summary, were blacked out.

The deleted passages, electronically recovered by a self-described "information archaeologist" in Tucson, portrayed the department's record on diversity as seriously flawed, specifically in the hiring, promotion and retention of minority lawyers.

The unedited report, completed in June 2002 by the consulting firm KPMG, found that minority employees at the department, which is responsible for enforcing the country's civil rights laws, perceive their own workplace as biased and unfair.
/snip/

The edited version gave a much narrower view of the department's diversity problems.

Private lawyers who have sued federal agencies for racial discrimination expressed dismay at the heavy editing of the report and at its conclusions that discrimination was perceived by the minority lawyers who make up about 15 percent of the Justice Department's 9,200 lawyers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/31/national/31JUST.html?ex=1068267600

I hope this is still LBN even though it's dated 10/30. It was published this morning (10/31.)

[DUreader]

1. This seems illegal to me

what law, though?

[E_Zapata]

4. Yeah, I hope the dept of justice looks into this.

ooopppssssss...I guess that won't be happening, since it's the DOJ with the problems. Oh well.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Read it in the Times this morning

So I'd say it is LBN. This is another example why there must be freedom of access to the government, and checks and balances must be maintained.

[dArKeR]

3. DOJ Censors Diversity Study - CBS

A report by consultants about hiring and promotion of minority and women attorneys at the Justice Department was heavily edited to delete criticisms before it was publicly released on the Internet.

Although the statistical information was kept in the edited version, most of the conclusions by KPMG Consulting and Taylor Cox & Associates — even some complimentary ones — were blackened out. The report was initiated in January 2002 and completed in June 2002, but kept under wraps until its partial release earlier this month.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/31/national/main581238.shtml