Bolden's Take on The Media

Prepared Remarks by Charles Bolden at NASA JSC 28 April 2010
“For my friends in the media – and I think you all know that I mean that in all sincerity – our NASA team cannot be successful in telling our incredible story without your cooperation and assistance. I will always attempt to be responsive to your requests for access, within reason. But you are not a friend of the space program when you misrepresent the statements or actions of our dedicated, loyal workforce for the sake of a headline-winning story. Again, please don’t take this as an attempt to blame the messenger for NASA’s problems. That is not the case nor my intent. Rather, please realize that this is a major change in trajectory for our Nation’s space program, and that such change is bound to be turbulent in the formative stages. I know that this Nation’s aerospace enterprise is capable of coming together and moving forward as one.”
Keith’s note: If NASA management were to stop thinking of the media in terms of “friends” or its implied counterpart (enemies) and focused instead upon being responsive to the media when the agency is legitimately questioning NASA’s problems (things NASA would prefer to to talk about), then the adversarial relationship would improve. Thinking in “us vs them” terms, as is evidenced in Bolden’s remarks, simply perpetuates the problem.