Slab,

Depending on the subject material and report, some science reports undergo policy and legal review before being issued. IMO any report that has been edited for policy or legal reasons may no longer be a science report, depending on what was edited and how. That doesn't make the scientist biased or lacking in objectivity. It becomes an agency report with multiple authors, some scientists and some not. If you want the objective report you need to obtain the draft technical report, before the policy and legal wonks review and edit it, if there's reason to doubt. However, for those kinds of issues, the draft is FOIA exempt because it's pre-decisional. However, none of this means the scientist who wrote the draft isn't objective in his/her analysis, although it's always possible. For example, scientists employed by tobacco companies and purveyors of manufactured food products manage to produce conclusions that no one on the payroll agrees with or considers objective. My point is that I had a pre-existing opinion that scientists tend to view almost everything more objectively than non-scientists. While that by no means covers all scientists, it's applicable to the majority of the ones I know best.

Sg