Squelching science

Saturday, June 7, 2008 | 2:07 a.m.

A federal report released this week says that for two years NASA public affairs officials made a concerted effort to hide scientists’ global warming data from the public.

The report, released Monday by Kevin Winters, NASA’s assistant inspector general for investigations, said public affairs employees handled climate change reports “in a manner that reduced, marginalized or mischaracterized” the data to the public.

Winters concluded that such interference occurred from fall 2004 through early 2006 and that the actions “were inconsistent” with the 1958 law that created NASA in that they prevented “the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination” of information about NASA’s activities and research.

The report came as a result of a 2006 request by 14 senators to examine NASA scientists’ allegations that their reports and data were being sanitized or squelched because of “political interference.”

Investigators “found no credible evidence” that senior NASA officials or Bush administration officials had had a hand in the deception, the report says.

The report also notes that senior NASA officials took steps to correct and improve the public relations process after the allegations surfaced in 2006.

Dean Acosta, who was NASA’s deputy assistant administrator for public affairs from 2003 until he resigned in 2007, told the Times the report’s findings are “patently false” and are based on “flimsy accusations aimed at hardworking public servants.”

But that hardly seems the case. The report documents a continued pattern of deception by Bush appointees that included withholding and sanitizing news releases about global warming and restricting scientists’ interactions with the news media.

As Sen. Frank Lautenburg, D-N.J., told the Times, the report “is more evidence that the Bush administration’s appointees have put political ideology ahead of science.”

We would note that Bush’s skewed priorities have not been limited to NASA, but also have permeated decisions by federal agencies responsible for the safety of the nation’s health, food and drugs. And it ought to make Americans wonder what else this administration has not been telling them.