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Recently, I was reading testimony given by Bush administration whistleblower Rick Piltz about the ongoing National Assessment process, in which the U.S. government, either cheerily or reluctantly (depending on the administration) sets out to inform Americans as to their local and regional climate risks. During the Bush years, as I reported in my book The Republican War on Science, there was an all out war on the in-government scientists trying to produce this legally required document. Lawsuits were filed, a disclaimer put up on the government website housing the document (indeed, it’s still there), and before long nobody in the administration would even cite the government’s own work.

It’s in this context that I found Piltz’s testimony so refreshingly…frank. For what he tells the scientists preparing the next round of the assessment for 2013 is this: No matter how good your science is, it will never be good enough for those who disbelieve it. The blush is off the rose; this is the new reality; this is how it works:

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Here's a video compilation we were working on for James Hoggan's recent keynote lecture to the Canadian Public Relations Society's national conference. We chose in the end to not use the video, but I thought it would be great for DeSmog readers.

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Big Tobacco, in the form of the Tobacco Institute and The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition, wrote the book on manipulative PR tactics. Go no further than this 1982 news interview with a Tobacco Institute VP.

Sound familiar? Same talking points, bigger issue. We've acquired more than 20 hours of old Tobacco Institute video, so watch for more clips over the next few weeks on DeSmog TV.