The Scientific Method follows at least these several steps:

1.     Observe and describe a phenomenon or several related phenomena.

2.     Formulate a hypothesis that can be confirmed or falsified.

3.     Test your hypothesis in the real world.

4.     Analyze your data.

5.     Formulate your conclusion based on the above experiments.

6.     Report your findings accurately.

Reading Shulman's book is almost a step by step analysis of the ways in which the US Administration has violated each of the above steps in its obsession to undermine science in the service of a-priori beliefs about public policy. Not only has the administration used spin doctors to sell a war, they have also treated science as an unnecessary irritant whenever it arrived at conclusions that did not agree with the official position. By placing non-scientists in positions of power the Bush administration has been able to suppress facts, to remove critics from advisory councils, and simply to pay no attention to the facts in case after case of public policy. This book is a record of those suppressions, distortions, and interferences.

The evidence keeps piling up that indeed there has been a consistent and mendacious effort on the part of the US Administration to suppress and distort scientific findings that do not support a particular ideological stance. Seth Shulman's updated book presents page after page of documented evidence for such distortion in a tightly organized and crisply written book. Here is the sort of example you can expect:

[Before Bush]:

Studies have shown that latex condoms are highly effective in preventing HIV transmission when used consistently and correctly . . . The studies found that even with repeated sexual contact, 98-100 % of those people who used latex condoms correctly and consistently did not become infected.

[After Bush]:

The surest way to avoid transmission of sexually transmitted disease [STD] is to abstain from sexual intercourse . . . no protective method is 100 % effective, and condom use cannot guarantee absolute protection against any STD.

This is a great example of distortion of meaning. It's not that the AB statements are false; it's rather that they are bullshit. [BS is a technical term in philosophy.]  Note that " no protective method is 100 % effective" is true when the percentage is anywhere from 1 to 99!

First published in 2006, Shulman's book has a new preface for the 2008 edition which updates some of the ongoing stories from the book's examples of interference and mendacity. In late June of 2007, for example, Stephen Griles, former deputy secretary of the US Department of the Interior was sentenced to ten months in prison for lying to Congress in the investigation of the disgraced lobbyinst, Jack Abramoff. As Shulman points out in the preface, "Many other Bush administration officials are currently under investigation as well." [xiv] He also points to the 2007 survey which reported that of the 1,600 climate scientists questioned some 435 claimed incidents of political interference in climate change science. A full 46% of the scientists reported they had been personally pressured by officials to eliminate the terms "climate change" or "global warming" from their studies.

In recent years, scientists who work for and advise the federal government have seen their work manipulated, suppressed, distorted, while agencies have systematically limited public and policy maker access to critical scientific information. To document this abuse, the Union of Concerned Scientists [UCS] has created the A to Z Guide to Political Interference in Science.  

UCS research present the following findings:

·       There is a well established pattern of suppression and distortion of scientific findings by high-ranking Bush administration political appointees across numerous federal agencies. These actions have consequences for human health, public safety, and community well-being.

·       There is strong documentation of a wide-ranging effort to manipulate the government's scientific advisory system to prevent the appearance of advice that might run counter to the administration's political agenda.

·       There is evidence that the administration often imposes restrictions on what government scientists can say or write about "sensitive" topics.

Shulman's book forcefully makes the case that the Bush administration has consistently followed a path of undermining scientific facts whenever the facts do not agree with the predetermined ideological position of the administration. Ideology trumps fact time after time in climate policy, health policy, positions on HIV/Aids, stem cell research and on and on, as indicated by the table of contents:

  Preface to the 2008 Edition

  Preface to the First Edition

 1. Facts Matter

2. "Icing" the Data on Climate Change

3. Doctoring Evidence about Your Health

4. Abstaining from the Truth on Abstinence and AIDS

5. Clear Skies? Healthy Forests? Understanding Bush's Real Environmental Policy

6. When Good Science Is the Endangered Species

7. Burying More Than Intelligence on Our Security

8. Stacking the Deck against Science

9. Stem Cells and Monkey Trials

10. Restoring Scientific Integrity

 Notes

Index

Each chapter is well researched, presented in sprightly  prose, and documented thoroughly in a comprehensive set of notes with sources. Other reviewers have also praised the book:

Exhaustively sourced and researched, Shulman's book leaves no doubt that the integrity of government research is under attack. . . . A work of timely muckraking." (Read full review.)—Discover Magazine

 Combining thorough research with lucid prose and a sense of mounting outrage, [Shulman] charges that the president's appointees and advisers are not only threatening the scientific enterprise but also American democracy itself. Shulman's consolidation of these tales of manipulation, intimidation and deception makes for disquieting reading." (Read full review.)—Publishers Weekly

 A concise, straightforward case history of the politicization of science, ideal for courses on the history, philosophy, sociology and ethics of science." (Read full review.) —Nature

 Shulman is admirably qualified to write on this topic and his descriptions of scientific concepts and issues are pithy and lucid…Undermining Science does a fine job or reporting many of the more spectacular instances of manipulation, intimidation, suppression and outright lying by Bush administration officials…" (Read full review.)" —Isis, Journal of the History of Science

This is an immensely readable book and it will, without a doubt, make you angry if you have any sense of the importance of facts in devising public policy in a democracy. It should be read now by all voters as part of their duty in preparing to cast an informed and intelligent vote in the next election.

© 2008 Bob Lane

Bob Lane is a retired professor of literature and philosophy who is currently a Research Associate at Vancouver Island University.