I was on the Viking Flight Team, and I can confirm that there was immense pressure from religious wackos for NASA to declare that there was no life on Mars. We did not get kicked around the way Galileo and Bruno did, of course, but the pressure was definitely there.

The bottom line is that NASA had one positive result and one negative result, and like the botched Hubble telescope in which NASA simply ignored the one test result saying the system was not focusing correctly because of political pressure ( not to mention bad decision making on both Challenger and Columbia), NASA allowed public pressure from the bible-bangers to steer it away from the results which indicated life on Mars. After the drubbing we had taken from the White House for "failing" to set down Viking 1 on July 4th, 1976, NASA management was probably feeling a bit bruised and unready for another controversy.

But those of us working on the project were for the most part convinced that we had indeed found traces of life. and it is nice to see a small vindication after all these years.

NASA needs to remember that it is supposed to be first and foremost a scientific endeavor, and science is not supposed to be swayed by public outcry.