"Most U.S. government agencies don't allow their scientists to talk freely with the media, according to a survey by an advocacy organization that has been highly critical of the Bush Administration's track record on scientific integrity. A new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) gives some agencies relatively high marks for adopting policies that allow considerable openness but notes that those policies are not always followed. The culture in the majority of the 15 agencies UCS examined "has become [such that] talking with the press has become fraught with risks," says UCS's Francesca Grifo."
Comment: Thanks to Francesca and the UCS! The UCS is not "an advocacy agency" as I usually think of that term, but rather a body that developed from the community of concerned atomic scientists at the end of World War II who wanted to act to prevent nuclear war. In the six decades since it was founded, the UCS has continued to promote the ethical use of science in a variety of areas vital to the public interest. JAD
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