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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIt's Not the Storm; It's the Cover-Up
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/its-not-the-storm-its-the-cover-up/597721/Its Not the Storm; Its the Cover-Up
The presidents initial misstatement about the danger Hurricane Dorian posed to Alabama was relatively minor. His actions since then pose an actual threat to public safety.
5:17 PM ET
David A. Graham
President Donald Trumps mind-bending debacle over Hurricane Dorian and Alabama comes to resemble the storm itself more by the day: unpredictable in course, lingering far longer than anyone hoped or expected, and ultimately disastrous.
Theres still no compelling explanation for why Trump has become so obsessed with the particular claim that he was right when he said that Dorian was headed for Alabama. (It was not.) Whatever the reason for his fixation, it has transformed an otherwise workaday gaffea simple, nearly harmless misstatementinto a far more dangerous assault on public safety.
snip//
On Saturday, the Post reported that on September 1, within hours of Trumps misstatement about Alabama, and after the NWS Birmingham tweet, NOAA warned staffers via email not to contradict Trump. Or, to put that another way: NOAA had instructed weather forecasters not to correctly report the weather forecast, for fear of hurting the presidents fragile feelings. Instead, staffers were told to offer no opinion at all, even though their job is to forecast the weather. Today, the Post reported that NOAAs chief scientistwho is only in the job in an acting capacityis investigating the press release, which he labeled political.
The value of our science is in the complexity of our understanding, our ability to convey that understanding to a wide audience of users of this information, and to establish and sustain the public trust in the truth and legitimacy of that information, Craig McLean, the scientist, wrote to staff. Unfortunately, the press release of last Friday violated this trust and violated NOAAs policies of scientific integrity.
snip//
Its already hard for government officials to persuade people in a storms path to evacuate, because many people dont believe forecasters. But its one thing to disbelieve the weatherman because he told you it would rain and it didnt. Its even harder to trust the forecast when you know that workers at government agencies are acting under explicit instructions not to contradict the president, on pain of firing.
If the public cannot trust our information, or we debase our forecasters warnings and products, that specific danger arises, NOAAs McLean wrote in his email to staff. Next time a storm approaches, where can Americans go for reliable information? Not to Trump, of course. But can they trust official forecasts from government agencies? On August 31, that question was easy to answer. Now it is much cloudier.
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It's Not the Storm; It's the Cover-Up (Original Post)
babylonsister
Sep 2019
OP
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,021 posts)1. the POS in the WH has zero credibility
Any who bend reality to serve the fool, damages their own credibility, perhaps irreparably.