Obama’s Separation of Politics and Science

“Obama moves to separate politics and science” the headline reads. If Obama was going to start funding churches, would you call that a move to separate church and state, or would you call that a move to bring church and state closer together? And yet if you read the article, the way in which Obama is separating politics and science is by providing funding for science, specifically embryonic stem cell research. Seems to me the way to separate politics and science would be to cut off funding for science by the government. But hey, I didn’t graduate in English or journalism, so maybe I’m unaware of how the word “separate” is used by journalists these days.