Exhausting Effect Of FOIA Requests Evident In 'Baseless'

By Tin Mak, NPR, July 22, 20209:29 AM ET

Governmental secrecy not only permits evil, but also breeds it.

It's this concept that forms the backbone of Nicholson Baker's foray into the U.S. development of biological weapons in the 1950s. His book, Baseless: My Search For Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act has a promising concept, which is to use the topic as a way to examine the shortcomings of America's public records law.

The book does not deliver on that promise.

Read more here.