
Trump silences government scientists with gag orders - azurelogic
http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/24/14372940/trump-gag-order-epa-environmental-protection-agency-health-agriculture
======
dashundchen
I have a laundry list of issues with the current administration but this is
seriously alarming.

This is an administration that seems intent on openly lying to the public on
even the tiniest of issues like inauguration crowd size, and large ones like
accusations of voter fraud. An administration set on quashing any dissent and
against the idea of a free and independent press. (See constant attempts to
[http://delegitimize/](http://delegitimize/) the press and media, plans to
defund public broadcasting, threats to open libel laws against the press)

And an administration that pushes aside and denounces experts in their fields
for industry hacks and politicians with no knowledge and experience, or
gigantic conflicts of interest - see Betsy Devos, Scott Pruitt, Rick Perry,
see also claiming climate change is a hoax, wanting to appoint anti-vaxxers to
lead a vaccine safety commission.

Trump voters, are you not the least bit concerned? I keep expecting some
movement on the right to keep leadership accountable, but instead Republican
politicians are falling in line hoping to gain some power in the new order.

~~~
m3ta
"Doug Ericksen, the communications director for Trump's transition team at
EPA, said he expects the communications ban to be lifted by the end of this
week."[0]

and,

"ARS spokesman Christopher Bentley said the ban would not include scientific
publications released through peer-reviewed professional journals."[0]

[0]:[https://www.apnews.com/5ada25fc57b44a0989e681d6dc2a3daf/Trum...](https://www.apnews.com/5ada25fc57b44a0989e681d6dc2a3daf/Trump-
admin-orders-EPA-contract-freeze-and-media-blackout)

~~~
dashundchen
That was added since I first read the article.

We'll see if it's actually lifted by then, as we've already seen a lot of
misdirection and outright lies from the Trump team.

Also from the article:

"The Trump administration has also ordered what it called a temporary
suspension of all new business activities at the department, including issuing
task orders or work assignments to EPA contractors. The orders were expected
to have a significant and immediate impact on EPA activities nationwide."

"Officials at state and local agencies that rely on EPA for funding said they
were left in the dark, saying they had received no information from EPA about
the freeze."

Why do they need to quash the speech and operations of employees during the
transition, other than to have a chilling effect in the department?

Unless you're already appointing leadership like Scott Pruitt, who is actively
hostile to the organization's goals and intent on dismantling it from the
inside.

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-
science/can-t...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/can-
the-epas-main-antagonist-become-its-next-leader/2017/01/17/d24308ca-
dcf7-11e6-ad42-f3375f271c9c_story.html?utm_term=.38ea1f99cdd0)

Before the inauguration the transition team sent surveys to the Department of
Energy and other agencies seemingly meant to ferret out anyone working on
climate science. Trump received a lot of criticism for this. A media blackout
would be a good time for him to clean house of anyone who disagrees.

[http://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-
administration/20...](http://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-
administration/2016/12/trump-transition-wants-names-of-energy-department-
staff-who-worked-on-climate-232424)

~~~
refurb
_Why do they need to quash the speech and operations of employees during the
transition, other than to have a chilling effect in the department?_

Wasn't the National Park Twitter feed trashing Trump and his policies?[1].
Randomly tweeting that the old Whitehouse webpages got deleted, even though
that's pretty typical for a new administration.

Why wouldn't you put a stop to that?

What would happen if a company got a new CEO and some random employee started
bashing them via the company Twitter account?

~~~
dashundchen
Think you are missing a link, but I will assume you're referring to the NPS
tweet about crowd size.

Was it the most appropriate thing to do on an agency twitter account? Maybe
not.

But that tweet has nothing to do with the EPA or Department of Ag, and
intentionally hampering their business and operations. There are other
motivations at play here.

That's not even getting into the ridiculous crowd size discussion and
"alternative facts" that were being pushed.

I'm genuinely afraid of how Trump and his team are so thin-skinned to a tweet
or criticism, considering the real challenges and attacks the office has and
will need to face.

~~~
refurb
I don't disagree the crowd size issue is pretty silly.

That said, if some gov't agency started Tweeting negative things about the
Obama administration after his inauguration, would any talk about a "chilling
effect" if he told them to stop? I'm not his biggest fan, but I wouldn't fault
him for that.

The job of the National Parks service is pretty clear. Tweeting their
political opinions using their employer's account are not one of them.

------
pedalpete
The same thing happened in Canada during the Harper years.

[http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/episodes/2013-2014/the-silence-of-
th...](http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/episodes/2013-2014/the-silence-of-the-labs)

Thankfully it was reversed after Trudeau became PM.

For a look at a few other things under Harper which it seems may be copied by
Trump, see [http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/adam-kingsmith/canada-
freedom-o...](http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/adam-kingsmith/canada-freedom-of-
press_b_2946418.html)

Lots more where that came from.

I'm now living in Sydney, Aus, and to be honest, it isn't considerably
different here. Last week a planned protest of the "Lockout Laws" (which has
very strict limits on when venues can serve alcohol and allow patrons to
enter) was denied because the the organizers did not provide police with "had
failed to show mass evacuation and crowd dispersal plans."
[http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-20/sydney-lockout-laws-
co...](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-20/sydney-lockout-laws-court-
against-protests-by-keep-sydney-open/8198226)

~~~
eon1
Yeah, that protest business was extremely shady. According to KSO it was
approved previously (as noted, they applied on Jan 9th for the protest to take
place on the 20th) and approval was revoked at the last minute and taken to
the Supreme Court at the request of the commissioner, giving the protest group
in question about 1 hour to submit those previously unrequested documents
(which didn't need to be submitted for any of their previous protests,
somehow).

------
yladiz
Is this gag order legal? And what would happen if an EPA scientist did talk to
the press during the gag order?

~~~
btreecat
Presumably with the $1 salary rule reinstated they wouldn't even need to fire
the scientist, just demote them and force them to quit (potentially no
unemployment that way).

[http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-
room/news/312797-hous...](http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-
room/news/312797-house-gop-revive-rule-that-lets-lawmakers-slash-gov-
employees)

------
technofiend
This is truly unfortunate. I can only hope despite Trump's best efforts these
agencies continue to do their jobs and protect the public. And if not I guess
the next round of thalidomide babies will be named after him.

------
m3ta
Is there a source for this? I am not seeing a source in OP's article nor am I
seeing any sources in any of the articles that show up on the front page of
DuckDuckGo. Also, none of the articles written about this are written in a
major news outlet.

~~~
dashundchen
Here's a link from the Associated Press.
[https://www.apnews.com/5ada25fc57b44a0989e681d6dc2a3daf/Trum...](https://www.apnews.com/5ada25fc57b44a0989e681d6dc2a3daf/Trump-
admin-orders-EPA-contract-freeze-and-media-blackout)

