The media—and I must say, the new Administration—continue to confuse and conflate policy differences with science. And the lifting of the Bush funding restrictions on ESCR is providing the excuse. From the story:
The decision by President George W. Bush to restrict funding for stem cell research has been seen by critics as part of a pattern of allowing political ideology to influence scientific decisions across an array of issues, from climate change to whether to approve the morning-after pill Plan B for over-the-counter sales.
Those are all policy disputes—which belong in the political realm—not science issues. ESCR restrictions were based on important ethical issues. So too Plan B. There isn’t a “science” position on whether a powerful contraceptive should be able to be purchased by teenagers as easily as candy and aspirin. The closest to a bona fide science dispute in the above examples is global warming, but the people who are the most “political” are those who say there is no further scientific debate on whether it is happening and whether it is human-caused—when that is patently false.
The MSM and the Science Establishment are part of the Liberal Establishment that wants to take us in certain directions politically and culturally. That’s fine, if they were only honest about it. But they don’t have the candor to admit they are as political and ideological as their opponents. Instead, they pretend they are objective, indeed, scientific. That may be a good political tactic, but nothing could be further from the truth.
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