The June 7th installment of 60 Minutes included an exclusive two-part interview with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. To my surprise, it was the first formal interview with the media that Bernanke had conducted since taking over from Alan Greenspan in 2006.

Understandably, the Chair of the Fed walks on fragile ground. These days especially he must measure his words precisely since one sentence has the power to send the world’s investors into a positive or negative tizzy.

But Bernanke was eloquent, thoughtful, poised and, evidently, supremely well prepared for what must have been grueling sessions with Steve Kroft. He seemed completely at ease, when most others would have had sweat seeping through even the pancakiest forehead makeup. Not only that but, unlike his predecessor, he was cast in a human light, even visiting his home town in South Carolina. At the end of it, I wanted this guy on my side, and I feel now that he genuinely is.

The new transparency is a welcome change in Washington. Bernanke was appointed by George W. Bush, and I would imagine that the sitting White House administration has some power to control media access to the Fed Chair.

The Bush administration’s media caginess was legendary. W. and company’s attitude seemed to be that the media was the enemy, continually painting unhelpful journalists as “liberal,” so the less said the better. The strategy worked for a while but, of course, silence is eventually treated with suspicion, and after eight years of fear and loathing the Bush II administration were this close to being chased from their offices by a gang of angry, torch-wielding Americans. The suspicion that silence created had turned to contempt.

The Obama administration, as we all know, is polar-opposite. Everything they do, it seems, is open and transparent. Anticipating questions and answering them before they’re even asked is the core strategy, and so far it has succeeded. Obama and company are everywhere in the media, from the front pages of The New York Times (first Presidential interviews with that paper since 1999) to Jay Leno to The University of Cairo. Obama even prefers to work with journalists one-to-one, without hovering advisors.

This new era of openness and honesty in Washington is a PR professional’s dream. The Obama administration is ushering in a new golden age of effective communication that will in time flow to other governments and the business world. Corporate leaders will eventually understand more than ever that accessibility and honesty with the audiences they need to reach will allow them to avoid the consequences of silence and suspicion, and simply deliver the news.