27 Feb 2007 NASA Climate Guru: Pretend I’m Being Quoted as a Private Citizen

Posted at 22:12h in Blog by

“Private citizen” James Hansen gets headlines for his personal opinion on the construction of coal plants.

Never mind that the headline (“NASA climate guru: Don’t build coal plants”) refers to his job at NASA, or that an AP article’s text identifies him as “NASA scientist James Hansen” and “Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.”

No, Hansen’s government job has nothing to do with whether he gets speaking appearances, or is quoted by the press. The AP runs stories on the opinions of ordinary Tom, Dick and Harrys all the time. Especially on attention-grabbing topics like the construction of new coal plants.



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