Is climate research honest? Is government climate research honest? Those are the important questions regarding climate research reporting but the NY Times seems to be much more interested in assuming the answer is yes and shutting down the other side of the debate.
In a tone of continued pique that somebody on the other side is permitted to tweak presentation at all, the NYT goes on and on about Philip A. Cooney doing his job and editing reports that were spun in a way that was inconsistent with Bush administration policy. There's nothing inherently wrong with keeping left-wing political types on USG salary during conservative administrations, that's why we have a civil service system instead of a spoils system. But the voters have their say and the people they elect (and those whom are appointed by those elected officials) exert a welcome democratic influence on what would otherwise be an untouchable mandarin system. The NY Times doesn't seem to like that and would rather that election results have no effect on what the government actually does except for a bit of front window dressing.
In the EU they call that system "the democratic deficit" and it is recognized as one of the most severe shortcomings of that multi-national institution. It's really sad to see the NYT seek to import that sort of problem to this side of the Atlantic.
Posted by TMLutas at June 9, 2005 01:16 PM