Streisand Effect though. Now people know that attempts were made to suppress the information, they are likely to take a much greater interest than they otherwise would, and the information will get a lot more attention and potentially do a lot more damage.
I hope you're right about these lobbyists being subjected to the Streisand Effect to a meaningful extent, but I doubt the broad public will ever take a much greater interest in this situation, because only a tiny, self-selected portion of the population ever comes across -- let alone reads -- articles in AAAS's Science magazine. (An even tinier, also self-selected group reads submissions and/or participates in discussions posted on HN.)
I just looked and it turns out this link has already been submitted to Reddit, where it gathered fewer votes -- and generated fewer comments -- than on HN:
The general public just can't -- or doesn't want to -- invest the time & effort required to learn about and pass judgment on these kinds of situations.
Arguably, this is what allows businesses, lobbyists, and others to get away with unethical behavior.
