It has often been said that science and politics should not mix; however, unfortunately for us scientists, politics does play a huge role in defining funding for science, what science gets done, and even what science gets reported. The latter is particularly troubling here in Canada where, as reported in this BBC news article, the Canadian government is "muzzling its scientists": 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16861468

Having worked at the Canadian Space Agency before coming to Western 4 years ago, I can say that this is not some media hype but is actually happening and is what all government scientists are facing. It's interesting that this BBC news article was on their front page for a time, but received very little attention here in Canada!

There is a CBC news article here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/02/17/science-federal-muzzling-s...

We should all be aware of this and voice our concerns whenever we can.