Censorship of Science & America's PR Culture of Lying

In his latest posting called the The Shadow on American Democracy, James Hansen -- America's leading climate scientist -- warns that making "government science submit to political command and control, is a threat to our democracy, and, as a result, a threat to the planet."

Do you know that before a government scientist testifies to Congress his/her testimony is typically reviewed and edited by the White House Office of Management and Budget?

We do now. Hansen reports that

The Public Affairs Offices (PAOs) of science agencies have become mouthpieces for the Administration in power....The Executive Branch has learned that the PAOs can be effective political instruments and, with some success, they are attempting to turn them into Offices of Propaganda, masters of double-speak (“clean coal”, “clear skies”, “healthy forests”…) that would make Orwell envious.

Hansen recommends two fixes: to staff Public Affairs Offices with career professionals, not political appointees; and to forbid the White House OMB from imposing prior restraint through preview of scientific testimony.

Absolutely sensible suggestions, and they might improve symptoms for awhile, but they won't cure the underlying disease: the body politic has been infected with a virulent vector that has gone out of control. It's commonly known by its benign name: public relations.

When the infection first began -- we can trace it back to Woodrow Wilson and World War I -- it was called propaganda, a word rooted in the history of the Catholic Church, whose missionaries "propagated" the faith. Wanting to enter the war but faced with pacifist public sentiment, Wilson convened a special commission (the Creel Commission) and charged it with the task of transforming public opinion.

Within 6 months, the Commission succeeded in its mission. Americans became rabidly pro-war, ready to turn back the onslaught of the Huns. The strategy that made this transformation possible? Characterizing the war going on in Europe as a clash between good and evil. (Sound familiar?)

One of the people on the Commission was a fellow named Edward Bernays -- the man widely recognized to be the father of the public relations industry. After the war, his clients came to include Proctor & Gamble, CBS, and General Electric. His work on behalf of another client -- the United Fruit Company -- led directly to the CIA overthrow of the elected government of Guatemala.

And he wrote a book in which he argues in favor of the political and corporate manipulation of the population by educated elites. The title of the book? Propaganda. And it's not hard to trace the subsequent history of how propaganda, eventually renamed as "public relations", has come to govern the marketing of products, the marketing of politicians, and the marketing of policies (including war) as a matter of common expectation.

It is a black cloud which hangs over us, the cloud that casts the shadow on democracy that Hansen writes about. It is what has led to the censorship of science for political ends, more pronounced now than ever before in our history.

Most of the techniques and technologies we use to communicate -- something as innocuous as a talking points memo -- have been first developed -- please remember -- to serve the goal of telling partial truths, and that's why we find ourselves in a world where everything, just about, is so carefully scripted. Or censored. The media, now more than ever a corporate interest in its own right, largely plays along according to the rules of the game. They need the access, and they are vulnerable to costly, legal reprisal.

And all this becomes clear as a bell when someone like James Hansen breaks the rules. The fury and power of this great machinery of inauthentic communication gets unleashed in his direction -- despite pious words about the First Amendment. And there it is, for all to see.

That's why next month America's top climate scientist is receiving the award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility from the world's largest scientific society -- the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Because he's been in battle with almost 100 years of practiced lying, dark and undemocratic forces hard at work comin' at him and you and me each day at every turn of the dial.

Applause for Hansen? Sure.

Pick up an oar? Even better.

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