In the wake of complaints that a Bush administration political appointee was trying to censor a NASA scientist’s views on global warming, the space agency’s administrator Michael Griffin issued a new communications policy in March based on “a commitment to a culture of scientific and technical openness.” In a statement to employees, Griffin said the policy “guarantees that NASA scientists may communicate their conclusions to the media, but requires that they draw a distinction between professional conclusions and personal views.”
Censorship became an issue earlier this year when James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, complained that George Deutsch, a political appointee in NASA’s public affairs office, tried to prevent him from speaking about the dangers of global warming. Deutsch, who came to NASA after working in the Bush reelection campaign, resigned in February following allegations that he lied about his college degree....
