PAO Is Playing Favorites Again

From Wednesday’s press China oportunity: NASA Chief, on First China Trip, Says Joint Spaceflight Is Unlikely, NY Times

“We did discuss closer cooperation in our nations’ science programs,” Mr. Griffin said during a news conference in which American reporters participated by telephone. “We’re all very encouraged by those initial discussions.”

From Tuesday’s China press opportunity (transcript): Mark Carreau from the Houston Chronicle was allowed to submit a question by email:

“MR. ACOSTA: All right. Let me ask one question that came from the Houston Chronicle, Mike, that was sent to me. The question comes from Mark Carreau. It said, “I would be interested in Administrator Griffin’s impressions of China’s overarching commitment to human space exploration, as well his impressions of the capabilities of the personnel and facilities the NASA entourage has met with or visited so far.” You kind of touched upon that, but – -“

Editor’s note: Looks like NASA PAO is hand picking reporters to participate again. This way you can control the sort of questions that get asked. No standard email media advisory to the NASA press corps was released for either event on Tuesday or Wednesday morning. Some reporters were even allowed to submit questions by email which were then asked by NASA PAO personnel.

Dean Acosta et al are playing games again, and I, for one, am tired of putting up with this.