Watching broken news echo
Keith’s note: On 11 February I posted a memo – verbatim – with only people’s names redacted – from the CFO at NASA HQ to the centers about some internal SMD/OMB efforts. I posted the text verbatim. I tweeted it too – verbatim – at 10:28 AM. I never mentioned or hinted at missions being cancelled. I just posted the memo. Several hours later Politico posted a piece that mentions some of the content of this memo – but not in the original context – and omits mention of the source or links to the actual thing on NASAWatch or on Twitter. Whatever. I am used to this by now. But this quickly got out of hand and NASA PAO dropped the ball. More below.
But this partial Politico story started to echo and re-echo and become something other than what I first posted. Then a few days later a question was asked about this at a NASA press event. A short video except of this was specifically tweeted by NASA press Secretary Bethany Stevens @NASASpox today 15 February (4 days later) wherein a question was asked about a senator’s comments on Twitter saying “The Trump admin must reverse this disastrous decision to withhold NASA funds. These cuts would be devastating for NASA’s workforce and our leadership in science and space exploration.” Huh? I never said any of that. Where did that come from? Oh wait – it’s the old ‘story about a story about a story’ thing.
In the video segment, Isaacman answered: “So I think I am aware of what you are referring to. That was really incorrect reporting. Very routine correspondence between the CFO Office and our various mission directorate and centers as we were gathering information as part of the apportionment process So … anyone who has any questions as it relates to the science mission to take a look at the NASA official quote that was provided to the reporter although I don’t think they actually included the entirety of it. I think it make it entire clear that there are no missions that are being cancelled or terminated. This was entirely an information gathering exercise that has been completely routine. I can tell you that any of those quotes that go out I have an opportunity to review in advance and fully stand behind them.”
I am not certain who supposedly sent whatever was sent to “the reporter” they refer to. No one from NASA PAO ever sent me anything. No one from NASA SMD ever contacted me. Had they done so I would have posted it verbatim. Had they done so promptly there’d have been no arm waving and error propagation. PAO simply ignores any inquires I make. Indeed Bethany called me recently and blamed me for a screwed up NASA video system during a recent Town Hall. I am not sure what to make of this.