NASA Chief Backs Agency Openness

The New York Times ^ | February 4, 2006 | Andrew C. Revkin

[steve-b]

A week after NASA's top climate scientist complained that the space agency's public-affairs office was trying to silence his statements on global warming, the agency's administrator, Michael D. Griffin, issued a sharply worded statement yesterday calling for "scientific openness" throughout the agency....

In October, for example, George Deutsch, a presidential appointee in NASA headquarters, told a Web designer working for the agency to add the word "theory" after every mention of the Big Bang, according to an e-mail message from Mr. Deutsch that another NASA employee forwarded to The Times....

[steve-b]

Somebody needs to fire this George Deutsch idiot. He's a walking billboard for the leftists' "Dubya Is An Ignoramus" argument.

[steve-b]

link

[The_Victor]

Given the political nature of some of the "scientific" products from NASA, and the yearly budget fight for which NASA needs executive support, I don't see this situation changing just because Griffith say so.

[jpl]

"It is not the job of public-affairs officers," Dr. Griffin wrote in an e-mail message to the agency's 19,000 employees...

This guy blasted out an e-mail to all 19,000 employees?

That sort of unprofessional behavior usually happens when someone is deliberately looking to embarrass someone else. I hate having these kinds of guys as co-workers.

[steve-b]

The Plot Thickens:

George C. Deutsch, the young presidential appointee at NASA who told public affairs workers to limit reporters' access to a top climate scientist and told a Web designer to add the word "theory" at every mention of the Big Bang, resigned yesterday, agency officials said.

Mr. Deutsch's resignation came on the same day that officials at Texas A&M University confirmed that he did not graduate from there, as his résumé on file at the agency asserted.