“There are lots of different situations when the government has legitimate reasons to give out false information.”

a) Washington Gov. Gary Locke, while explaining why he went to such extremes during the recent legislative session to avoid giving the impression that tax increases would be used to help close the state’s enormous budget shortfall.

b) Former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay, defending his company’s lack of candor in its treatment of its employees by comparing it favorably with the information Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other Pentagon officials have given out during the war in Afghanistan.

c) A federal government lawyer, arguing before the Supreme Court that Jennifer Harbury should not have been told by the State Department that Guatemalan officials employed by the CIA tortured and killed her husband.

d) New Seattle Police Officers Guild head Ken Saucier, defending the police practice of withholding information on some disciplinary matters from the public.

Answer: c