Friday, February 17, 2006
NASA Working To End Political Censorship
NASA is continuing to try to clean up it's act and dispense with political minders dictating what scientific data and conclusions get disseminated to the press.
NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin said yesterday he has convened a team of scientists and public information officials to draft new guidelines to ensure that news of agency research or events will not be tailored or curtailed to reflect political or ideological bias.In his clearest statement yet regarding accusations that NASA public relations officials had manipulated news releases or reports involving climate change and cosmology, Griffin told reporters that "it is not appropriate for scientists to be required to adjust, spin or alter their scientific work to fit any particular political agenda."...
Although (Science Committee Chairman Sherwood L.) Boehlert (R-N.Y.) and other House members mentioned NASA's public information difficulties in opening statements, they asked Griffin no questions about the accusations that arose in January when scientist James E. Hansen charged that the agency's press office was restricting his efforts to publicly discuss climate change.
In response to Hansen's assertions, Griffin earlier this month e-mailed employees vowing to respect scientific openness. On Feb. 10, NASA spokesman George C. Deutsch, a political appointee, resigned after allegations he had edited a scientist's press release on cosmology to conform to administration views.
Griffin told reporters after yesterday's hearing that he has made it a policy that "technical people within NASA are not only allowed to speak their minds . . . we beg them to speak their minds."
