Self-censorship is still censorship, and can sometimes be worse than overt censorship.
Nope. You are wrong. "Self-censorship" is not the issue here; Being a cagey businessperson is. You can't be a bull in a china shop and expect to get anything other than broken dishware. Sometimes it is smarter to cloak your real purpose behind some carefully chosen wording. This is the case throughout the business world, and especially in the world of government funding. If you want to get them to release the money you need to do your work, then you need to phrase your needs in terms they will be supportive of. This is the path of success in business and government. It is not "self-censorship".
I mean, it sort of is. The CDC figured out that there are trigger words and phrases that get Republicans up in arms. They want to accomplish the same public health goals they always have, and not get pilloried for it by the people who have the ability to pull their funding. In order to do that, they had to self-censor, which is an insidious evil, and hard to counteract."Self-censorship" is not the issue here;
I believe that there is an important distinction between 'business acumen' and 'Blatantly trying to conceal the exact aims and methods of our work.' I understand what they did. I understand why they did it. I understand why various context-specific taboos exist to delineate 'work' from 'real life' and why you don't talk about money, politics or religion at work. I also think that we need more honesty and forthrightness in our system, not less.