absolutely not
Our own local crazies have had campaigns that NASA should post all new pix before anyone on the team has had a chance to see them. Malin is the anti-christ, etc. We have had to sit on some of them here and at the MSNBC board. Add Bell to the list of crazies, I guess.
As far as the political show, two things:
a) We do it too.
b) Jeez, they haven't had a lot of experience with this. There was Giotto, and the Mars orbiter, and now this. If they go overboard in their attempts to mark this moment for posterity, surely we can forgive them?
I would not like to have a beer with Bell.