A troubling thing these days is the media's increasing use of completely anonymous sources to make lurid allegations. Seldom is there any apology if the allegations turn out to be unsubstantiated – or even proven to be entirely false. Worst of all, is that once the allegation is made – even if it is false – the meme has entered circulation. You can't stuff the genie back into the bottle. Having said all that, let's revisit the anonymous allegations of alcohol abuse among NASA astronauts.
Mike Carney over at USA Today's On Deadline has a preliminary report from the head of safety for NASA, Bryan O'Connor, which indicates that there is no evidence at all that astronauts violated NASA alcohol policies.
The head of safety for NASA has investigated every space shuttle flight over the last 10 years and found no evidence of heavy drinking, space-agency spokesman David Mould tells USA TODAY's Traci Watson.
Safety chief Bryan O'Connor examined records and interviewed astronauts, launch-pad personnel and the crews who help astronauts into their launch suits but didn't hear any reports of alcohol abuse or violations of NASA's alcohol policy, according to Mould.
He says O'Connor hopes to finish his investigation by the end of the month.
NASA chief Michael Griffin last month asked O'Connor to look into allegations that two astronauts had drunk heavily before space launches. Members of the independent panel, created after an astronaut was arrested in Florida, gave no details of the incidents except that one involved an astronaut about to launch on a Russian spacecraft to the International Space Station and the other involved an astronaut preparing to launch on the space shuttle.
There will, undoubtedly, be some who will say NASA is covering things up. NASA, however, will also realize that anything they produce here will be examined under a microscope – unlike the allegations. Those were just flung out there with nothing to back them up. I said at the time these charges surfaced that any flight surgeon who allowed a drunk astronaut to fly is unfit for his or her job. I still believe that.
The problem with these anonymous charges is that there is no way to judge whether the person making them is being truthful. It could well be a person with an ax to grind. It could be a disgruntled employee. It could be someone reporting something he heard from someone who heard something from someone else. There is no way to judge. There is also no way to put the genie back.
This is pretty much what I expected. Unsubstantiated claims made by people who are not identified make for good headlines but lousy truth.