Maggie's Farm

There are 3 or 4 major players in any scientific "discovery/study". The scientists, the media, the politics and the government. The scientists may well be "mostly" honest but in fact over history the biggest scientific frauds were perpetrated by the scientist. The second group and very important in today's world is the media. It isn't uncommon for the media to write a headline about a study that the study itself and the facts cannot support. If it can be spun to fit their agenda or simply made to appear newsworthy than it will be spun to do so. The politics of it will often decide what can and what cannot be said/printed; The book The Bell Curve is an example of this as is AGW. And of course there is the government. The EPA has been distorting science for decades going back to banning DDT or the dioxin contamination in Times Beach which conveniently funneled billion$$$$ into a powerful Missouri congressman's district and made a contractor and various cronies incredibly rich. Nobody does scientific fraud like the government can and the money can be a thousand King's ransom. Where there is money and power to be had it can be very dangerous to disagree with your government.