House Committee Holds Hearings on Science Disinformation

FEATURING GRETCHEN GOLDMAN – A House subcommittee on oversight and investigations held hearings on Tuesday on the spread of disinformation in the US. The hearing was titled, “The Denial Playbook: How Industries Manipulate Science and Policy from Climate Change to Public Health.” The subcommittee falls under the House Natural Resources Committee and featured testimonies from a retired NFL player and a survivor of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

The Union of Concerned Scientists, which a few years ago released a report titled The Disinformation Playbook, hailed the hearings and said, “Many of the political appointees in the Trump administration come right from the industries they’re now charged with regulating—and they’ve played key roles in using disinformation and political influence to shield companies from accountability.” The Union of Concerned Scientists just released a new report titled, “The State of Science in the Trump Era.”

Gretchen Goldman, Research Director for the Center for Science and Democracy at Union of Concerned Scientists.