Bush man resigns NASA post in scandal

Space & Earth science

A 24-year-old controversial presidential appointee at NASA has resigned his post amid accusations he lied on his resume about graduating from college.

George Deutsch, who told NASA public affairs workers to limit reporters' access to a top climate scientist and ordered the word "theory" be inserted on every mention of the Big Bang, resigned Tuesday, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The resignation followed Texas A&M University's announcement that Deutsch, although once a student, had not received a degree in journalism as he claimed.

Several NASA scientists and public affairs officials said they had been pressured by Deutsch and other political appointees to limit or slant discussions of topics uncomfortable to the Bush administration.

Last month the information officers revealed they had been instructed to limit NASA climate scientist James Hansen's speaking and interviews concerning global warming.

Hansen told the newspaper Deutsch was only a minor problem and distracts from the broader issue of political control of scientific information.

"On climate, the public has been misinformed and not informed," he told the Times. "The foundation of a democracy is an informed public, which obviously means an honestly informed public. That's the big issue here."

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

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Posted by drknowledge 04/10/08 10:21

Not rated yet.

This seems like an article with an agenda...I really can't guess the motivation...to bash Bush, or NASA? Interestingly, Wikipedia contradicts several of the points. http://en.wikiped..._Deutsch And, so it appears, this is not "news" but relates to events over a year ago. PhysOrg editors, the facts need to be checked before you pass these things on to us.

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Posted by drknowledge 04/10/08 10:29

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Ok, now, the light dawns after reading http://www.nytime...tml?_r=1&oref=slogin This PsysOrg article is a recap. It does have an agenda, which is to defend Hansen. However "agenda" does not necessarily mean wrongdoing on the part of Hansen. Hmmm. Maybe this sort of subjective article material isn't the most appropriate for PhysOrg? Dunno.