Orwellianism doesn’t start overnight or with a vast conspiracy. It’s much more mundane. Government officials decide to tighten up their message by vetting all interviews before they happen. The next thing you know, they’re controlling their message so much that it is no longer mere spin, but an effort at mind control. Take this article from Salon for example. It’s all about how little known government agencies called the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Hurricane Center “sought to downplay links between more-intense hurricanes and global warming”. Why would officials want to interject their opinions into what is a purely scientific dispute (and not much of one)? Only one reason: this administration is really into petrochemicals. I mean, look around the world, and outside of an Exxon/Mobile board meeting, you will not find a group more in love with burning petrochemicals than this administration. I might add, that they could quite possibly foster some fantasies about Mother Nature doing a little more Katrina action on Democratic strongholds along the coasts of this nation. After all, I mean, c’mon…look at this.
Renters are being encouraged not to return to New Orleans.
Though over half of the people of New Orleans before Katrina were renters – none of the federal housing money coming into the area is designated for renters. There is some money going to landlords and developers who at some point may provide some affordable housing to some people – but essentially renters are being left out.
Stay in Houston, Negroes, where things are “working very well”. But back to our story.
It seems Salon used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain some governmental emails (available here). And those emails were quite telling when it came to subject of civilians “fixing the facts around the policy” and manipulating the message. Just for a couple of examples…
In 2005, NOAA press officer Kent Laborde wrote an e-mail that approved Washington Post reporter Juliet Eilperin’s request to interview scientists. “CEQ and OSTP have given the green light for the interview,” he wrote. CEQ is the Council on Environmental Quality and OSTP is the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Both are White House agencies that work on science issues. During the Bush administration, numerous critics have charged that CEQ has been particularly aggressive in pushing a pro-business agenda and suppressing inconvenient science.
In another e-mail, Laborde’s boss, Jordan St. John, said of NOAA scientist Dave Hoffman, whose work tracks greenhouse gases, “This doesn’t say anything new about the data, it’s just a new way of tracking it. This was the CEQ-approved release that went on the NOAA Web site earlier this week.”
The e-mails also show that after Hurricane Katrina, NOAA press officers had to get clearance from the Department of Commerce for scientists to discuss global warming and hurricanes with the press. (NOAA is part of Commerce.) Regarding the request for a particular interview, Commerce press officer Catherine Trinh wrote, “Let’s pass on this one.” The response from a NOAA official reads, “Can I please have a reason?”
…But Commerce’s deputy director of communications, Chuck Fuqua, was happy to have a more politically reliable NOAA hurricane researcher named Chris Landsea speak to the press. At the time, Landsea was stating publicly that global warming had little to no effect on hurricanes. “Please make sure Chris is on message and that it is a friendly discussion,” Fuqua wrote regarding a request for Landsea to appear on “The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.” On the show, Landsea downplayed research that linked global warming with more-intense hurricanes like Katrina.
Yeah, so what. All governments lie about unimportant stuff like environmental science, right? First of all, that’s not true. But second of all, this government just got caught.
When NOAA press officer Laborde was contacted to discuss the e-mails, he denied that interviews were subject to approval from White House officials. Confronted with his own e-mails, however, he said, “If you already knew the answer, why did you ask the question?”
A samurai would immediately fall on his sword. A decent bureaucrat would resign in shame. I won’t hold my breath waiting to see what Laborde does. More of the same from Bushland. Another day, another petrodollar.
