From The Associated Press, 7/22/07:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070522/smithsonian_exhibit_070522/20070522?hub=SciTech

Smithsonian accused of altering exhibit

Associated Press

WASHINGTON --

The Smithsonian Institution toned down an exhibit on climate change in
the Arctic for fear of angering Congress and the Bush administration,
says a former administrator at the museum.

Among other things, the script, or official text, of last year's
exhibit was rewritten to minimize and inject more uncertainty into the
relationship between global warming and humans, said Robert Sullivan,
who was associate director in charge of exhibitions at the
Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

Also, officials omitted scientists' interpretation of some research
and let visitors draw their own conclusions from the data, he said.

In addition, graphs were altered "to show that global warming could go
either way," Sullivan said.

"It just became tooth-pulling to get solid science out without toning
it down," said Sullivan, who resigned last fall after 16 years at the
museum.

He said he left after higher-ups tried to reassign him.

Smithsonian officials denied that political concerns influenced the
exhibit, saying the changes were made for reasons of objectivity.

And some scientists who consulted on the project said nothing major
was omitted.

Sullivan said that to his knowledge, no one in the Bush administration
pressured the Smithsonian, whose US$1.1 billion budget is mostly
taxpayer-funded.

Rather, he said, Smithsonian leaders acted on their own.

"The obsession with getting the next allocation and appropriation was
so intense that anything that might upset the Congress or the White
House was being looked at very carefully," he said.

White House spokeswoman Kristen Hellmer said Monday:

"The White House had no role in this exhibit."

In recent months, the White House has been accused of trying to muzzle
scientists researching global warming at NASA and other agencies.

The exhibit, "Arctic: A Friend Acting Strangely," based partly on a
report by federal scientists, opened in April 2006 -- six months late,
because of the Smithsonian's review -- and closed in November, but
its content remains available online.

Among other things, it highlighted the Arctic's shrinking ice and snow
and concerns about the effect on people and wildlife.

This is not the first time the Smithsonian has been accused of taking
politics into consideration.

The congressionally chartered institution scaled down a 1995 exhibit
of the restored Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on
Hiroshima, after veterans complained it focused too much on the damage
and deaths.

Amid the oil-drilling debate in 2003, a photo exhibit of Alaska's
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was moved to a less prominent space.

Sullivan said the changes in the climate-change exhibit were requested
by executives who included then-museum Director Cristian Samper and
his boss, former Undersecretary for Science David Evans.

He said several scientists whose work was used in the exhibit objected
to the changes.

_________________________________________________

Harry

From The Associated Press, 7/22/07:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070522/smithsonian_exhib
it_070522/20070522?hub=SciTech

Smithsonian accused of altering exhibit

Associated Press

WASHINGTON --

The Smithsonian Institution toned down an exhibit on climate change in
the Arctic for fear of angering Congress and the Bush administration,
says a former administrator at the museum.

Among other things, the script, or official text, of last year's
exhibit was rewritten to minimize and inject more uncertainty into the
relationship between global warming and humans, said Robert Sullivan,
who was associate director in charge of exhibitions at the
Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

Also, officials omitted scientists' interpretation of some research
and let visitors draw their own conclusions from the data, he said.

In addition, graphs were altered "to show that global warming could go
either way," Sullivan said.

"It just became tooth-pulling to get solid science out without toning
it down," said Sullivan, who resigned last fall after 16 years at the
museum.

He said he left after higher-ups tried to reassign him.

Smithsonian officials denied that political concerns influenced the
exhibit, saying the changes were made for reasons of objectivity.

And some scientists who consulted on the project said nothing major
was omitted.

Sullivan said that to his knowledge, no one in the Bush administration
pressured the Smithsonian, whose US$1.1 billion budget is mostly
taxpayer-funded.

Rather, he said, Smithsonian leaders acted on their own.

"The obsession with getting the next allocation and appropriation was
so intense that anything that might upset the Congress or the White
House was being looked at very carefully," he said.

White House spokeswoman Kristen Hellmer said Monday:

"The White House had no role in this exhibit."

In recent months, the White House has been accused of trying to muzzle
scientists researching global warming at NASA and other agencies.

The exhibit, "Arctic: A Friend Acting Strangely," based partly on a
report by federal scientists, opened in April 2006 -- six months late,
because of the Smithsonian's review -- and closed in November, but
its content remains available online.

Among other things, it highlighted the Arctic's shrinking ice and snow
and concerns about the effect on people and wildlife.

This is not the first time the Smithsonian has been accused of taking
politics into consideration.

The congressionally chartered institution scaled down a 1995 exhibit
of the restored Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on
Hiroshima, after veterans complained it focused too much on the damage
and deaths.

Amid the oil-drilling debate in 2003, a photo exhibit of Alaska's
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was moved to a less prominent space.

Sullivan said the changes in the climate-change exhibit were requested
by executives who included then-museum Director Cristian Samper and
his boss, former Undersecretary for Science David Evans.

He said several scientists whose work was used in the exhibit objected
to the changes.

_________________________________________________

Harry