Speaking at the recent White House correspondents’ dinner, and in keeping with the satirical nature of the evening, President Obama took a couple of pokes at the news media and the diminishing resources available for investigative journalism.

“As you know, ‘Spotlight’ is a film, a movie about investigative journalists with the resources and the autonomy to chase down the truth and hold the powerful accountable. Best fantasy film since ‘Star Wars.’

“Look. That was maybe a cheap shot. I understand the news business is tough these days,” said the president.

Give the president his due. He knows how to deliver punch lines. Most newsrooms have shrunk along with advertising revenue, siphoned away by expanding digital competition for the public’s attention.

But there was also some hypocrisy in Obama’s jabs because his administration has not made the job of investigative journalists any easier. He promised the “most transparent” administration in history and claims his White House fulfilled the promise.

The record suggests differently.

An Associated Press analysis found that last year 77 percent of requests for records under the Freedom of Information Act resulted in requesters receiving censored files or nothing at all. In more than one in six cases government officials said they could not find any of the documents sought.

The website Gawker, for example, wanted to review emails that Philippe Reines, former deputy assistant of secretary of state to Hillary Clinton, sent to journalists. The State Department responded that it could not find any such emails. When Gawker sued, however, State produced 90,000 documents about correspondences between Reines and reporters.

The administration claims it releases all or parts of records in 93 percent of cases, a number that conveniently excludes requests for which officials claim they could not find records or ruled the request improper.

On his first day in office, Obama instructed all agencies “to adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure” when an FOI request is received. But in 2014, when Congress considered a law to make that presumption part of the law, the administration quietly worked against it. How do we know that? The Freedom of Press Foundation used the FOI Act to obtain internal memos showing the administration opposed a tougher open-government law.

Presidential administrations and the bureaucracies surrounding them seem to have an inherent desire to act secretly. In his little time left, the president needs to do a better job matching his FOI rhetoric with action and set a higher standard for his successor.