NASA open to openness

Mike Griffin wants NASA workers to speak their minds without fear of retaliation, and he certainly opened the door by speaking his today.

The administrator held court today with employees across the country, via NASA Television. A question came up about the public affairs office spinning scientific results to match political or religious beliefs, a hot national news topic of late.

Griffin responded with a monologue indicating a personal opinion that scientific and engineering data is what it is and should be made public unmolested by politics.

On a more specific level, he made three points that perked our ears.

1. NASA is probing its public affairs policies. Griffin and deputy administrator Shana Dale, a lawyer by trade, found them outdated and unclear. New policies will be drafted that tilt heavily toward the unfettered release of unbiased technical data. A panel of experts in public relations, science and engineering will do the job.

2. Griffin does not think much of the actions of George Deutsch, a Bush Administration political appointee who inserted personal political and religious beliefs into attempted editing of NASA web sites and releases. Duetsch later quit, after it was disclosed his resume wrongly stated that he had graduated from college.

"Clearly, there was a situation ... where at least one misguided individual was attempting to insert his personal religious beliefs into an argument involving scientific communication as well as possibly other political beliefs. That isn't tolerated on either side. This is a country in which, in words that the president himself has used, that we have the freedom to worship as we choose or not at all. We cannot have that kind of spin being applied to press releases at NASA and we won't. It simply will not be tolerated."

3. NASA employees are free to speak their minds, including personal opinions on space, science and other issues. He says NASA can't limit employees' free speech, despite a belief by the many space workers that if they say anything to the press without a blessing from someone on high, they could be punished or fired.

"Individuals are entitled to express their opinions as long as they are so labeled," Griffin said. "That is I think inarguable, and we're not arguing it."

The Columbia Accident Investigation Board tried to get at this issue too, saying that employees were squelched from airing their views to their bosses or sometimes weren't heard or listened to when they did air their views to their bosses. People were afraid to speak up. Griffin noted that CAIB finding in his monologue today.

Of course, people hear what they want to hear. So the way I heard what he said is that you're all free to comment here in The Flame Trench or in other space forums about your jobs, or whatever, so long as you label it your opinion.

So, fire away. You're welcome to comment here about this blog, about any of the stories we write for Florida Today or about any other space or science issue. You can leave your name. If you're not quite sure whether to believe that Mike Griffin's opinions on openness are shared by your own boss, you can comment anonymously too.