Better Late Than Never

Yesterday morning's New York Times revealed that Bush administration official Phillip Cooney, who revolved right into the White House from the oil industry, tampered with government reports on global warming.

This story is getting huge traction, probably because Bush stood cheerily next to British Prime Minister Blair this week and once again said the data wasn't in on whether global warming was real.

And the press is suddenly digging up Cooney's previous history. There's a major expose in The Guardian about his collaboration with Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute in undermining EPA Administrator Christy Todd Whitman.

Frankly I am amazed. This two-year old story is being covered as if it were fresh. The press could have covered this when Ebell and Cooney first got together, and their joint emails were first released-- a fact I recounted last year in my book Strategic Ignorance:

This conclusion, even though unaccompanied with strong prescriptions for how to cut greenhouse gases, alarmed the White House, which entered into an undercover dialogue with the Competitive Enterprise Institute think tank. In a June 3, 2002, memo (later leaked to Greenpeace), Ebell writes to Phil Cooney, a senior CEQ official: "Thanks for calling and asking for our help," he says. "It's nice to know we're needed once in a while."

But all the press yesterday missed Bush's personal fingerprints in this episode. In exchange for undercutting Whitman, Ebell asked the White House to disavow the EPA study Whitman had prepared. Two days later, the President personally said the report was simply a product of the bureaucracy.

(Several state Attorneys General also filed complaints about the hanky panky back in 2002. It's all over the Web. But Bush was riding the wave of his popularity, and the press was reluctant to touch him.)

My hope is that this better late than never coverage is an indication the tide is turning and that the media may be returning to its role as watchdog.

Let's hope we are witnessing the beginning of a welcome trend.