Bush's Shrinking Safety Zone

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This could have also been posted in another discussion on this same topic entitled Perverting science for politics where stem cell research, EPA and air quality, logging, Hubble Space Telescope, Union of Concerned Scientists, a Democratic summary About Politics & Science The State of Science Under the Bush Administration (which includes lead in the drinking water is acceptable), science that contradicts Genesis (the bible), hydrogen as a fuel, a silly Man to Mars program, denial of 'over the counter' emergency contraceptives, Philip A. Cooney (a lawyer) who rewrote science papers for the White House, and The White House’s White-Out Problem .

From the NY Times of 16 Feb 2006:

Call for Openness at NASA Adds to Reports of Pressure
Top political appointees in the NASA press office exerted strong pressure during the 2004 presidential campaign to cut the flow of news releases on glaciers, climate, pollution and other earth sciences, public affairs officers at the agency say.

The disclosure comes nearly two weeks after the NASA administrator, Michael D. Griffin, called for "scientific openness" at the agency. In response to that, researchers and public affairs workers at the agency have described in fresh detail how political appointees altered or limited news releases on scientific findings that could have conflicted with administration policies.

Press officers, who were granted anonymity because they said they were still concerned for their jobs despite Dr. Griffin's call for openness, said much of the pressure in late 2004 was placed on Gretchen Cook-Anderson. At the time, Ms. Cook-Anderson was in charge of managing the flow of earth science news at NASA headquarters. ...

In a conference call with colleagues in October 2004, the colleagues said, she said that Glenn Mahone, then the assistant administrator for public affairs, had told her that a planned news conference on fresh readings by a new NASA satellite, Aura, that measures ozone and air pollution, should not take place until after the election. ...

Dr. Griffin announced the review of communications policies after complaints last month by James E. Hansen, the agency's top climate scientist, that political appointees were trying to stop him from speaking out on global warming. After those complaints were reported in The Times, other scientists and press officers came forward with similar stories.