Hat tip DrewM. NASA scientist James Hansen claims that President Bush censored his dire predictions about climate change, and he was hailed as a whistle blower for his actions. Guess what? It seems he received media and legal advice, as well as money, from a Soros-funded group.

How many people, for instance, know that James Hansen, a man billed as a lonely “NASA whistleblower” standing up to the mighty U.S. government, was really funded by Soros’ Open Society Institute , which gave him “legal and media advice”?

That’s right, Hansen was packaged for the media by Soros’ flagship “philanthropy,” by as much as $720,000, most likely under the OSI’s “politicization of science” program.

That may have meant that Hansen had media flacks help him get on the evening news to push his agenda and lawyers pressuring officials to let him spout his supposedly “censored” spiel for weeks in the name of advancing the global warming agenda.

Hansen even succeeded, with public pressure from his nightly news performances, in forcing NASA to change its media policies to his advantage. Had Hansen’s OSI-funding been known, the public might have viewed the whole production differently. The outcome could have been different.

I’m with Drew on this. I don’t doubt it affected his campaign against Bush, but I doubt this revelation would’ve mattered to the media. The media takes every opportunity, whether it’s actually been proven or not (Memogate), to criticizing the Bush Administration.