In President Obama’s first inaugural address in January 2009, he declared, rather grandly, “We’ll restore science to its rightful place…” The president has often prided himself on his devotion to science, and earlier this year the White House posted “100 Examples of Putting Science in Its Rightful Place” on its blog. This emphasis on the primacy of science is what makes the editor’s note attached to many of the posts on the EPA’s official blog eight years in to the Obama administration so curious: “EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog…”
Ironically, even the EPA blog entitled “It All Starts With Science” includes the disclaimer, even as recently as last week, as this screen grab shows:
The note even appears on posts by EPA-employed authors and science writers. The site also gives permission to others to share the information on the post, with certain conditions. However, including the “we do not verify the accuracy or science” warning is not one of the conditions, as the screen grab above also shows.
After an initial reply, the EPA did not respond to multiple further inquiries requesting comment.
