Subcommittee Members Examine How Big Business and Science Agencies Conspire to Distort Science
(Washington, DC) – Members of the House Committee on Science and Technology's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations today questioned industry efforts and attempts within science agencies to control which federal scientists get access to the media and how media campaigns are mounted to confuse the public.
Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Brad Miller (D-NC) led today's hearing which used climate change science as a case study to relate how the deception works. From the public's perspective, climate change news stories often become little more than two “experts” staking out opposite positions. The fact that one “expert” may be articulating a consensus scientific position that represents the work of thousands of active researchers, and the other “expert” is paid to be a professional skeptic is not obvious to the average citizen.
“Industry often promotes made-for-television ‘experts’ who are supported by financial contributors that can be traced back primarily to the oil and gas industry,” said Chairman Miller. “Few of these experts do any original research, many are not even trained in the fields in which they claim expertise, most are readily available for the press and specialize in attacking as ‘junk science’ careful, legitimate research that has been published in learned journals and tested by rigorous peer review.”
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