Former NSF official blasts Washington Post’s Jack Marburger obituary

The original media report on Jack Marburger’s passing noted that the Post‘s obituary had gone noticeably out of its way to resurrect and quote ugly words that had been leveled publicly at Marburger as part of the contentious national technopolitics of the era of President George W. Bush. Now, for the 6 August paper edition, the Post has placed online a letter evincing restrained but unmistakable anger about all of that. It comes from Frederick M. Bernthal , a former assistant secretary of state for oceans, environment and science and former NSF deputy director.

Bernthal calls the Post‘s article “not so much an obituary as an editorial rehashing the political agenda of those who intensely disliked Bush and his policies.” He explains—re-explains, actually—that “Marburger believed profoundly that his job was to give the president the best scientific advice surrounding public policy issues and not to serve as the mouthpiece for any group—even his science colleagues” and that Marburger “also adhered to the principle, long held by most science advisers, that he should not personally engage in partisan political commentary while in office.”

One of the letter’s four paragraphs requires quoting:

Steven T. Corneliussen, a media analyst for the American Institute of Physics, monitors three national newspapers, the weeklies Nature and Science, and occasionally other publications. His reports to AIP are published in ‘Science and the media.’ He has published op-eds in the Washington Post and other newspapers, has written for NASA’s history program, and is a science writer at a particle-accelerator laboratory.