Dan Esty on Colbert 11/30 (East Anglia Emails)

Last Monday I was watching The Colbert Report. The first guest to come on was Dan Esty, the Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy at Yale University. He discussed the emails from East Anglia University's (britsh college) climate center that were obtained by computer hackers and posted online about two weeks ago. These emails contained evidence of a decline in global temperatures. Dan Esty states on The Colbert Report (<--worth watching!) that although it was wrong for the climate experts to withhold/alter data showing a decline in global temperatures, their intention was good. He explains that the scientists recognized that the data could have been over simplified by the media and used to support the theory that global warming is a myth.
I don't think that altering data showing a decline in global temperatures was the right thing to do, but I definitely understand the logic of the East Anglia scientists. What do you think? Was it ok for these scientists to alter data showing a drop in global temperatures? Was their fear that the media would over simplify the data understandable? Does it justify their lie? What should these scientists have done?

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