Related: Moe Lane has an excellent summary of the events, and notes how difficult it can be to simulate the tone of a memo when you loathe the organization or ideology you’re attempting to emulate:
Megan McArdle took this memo apart, and effectively concluded that it was written after the fact by somebody who was under the mistaken belief that they could successfully reproduce the tone of global warming skeptics and conservative/libertarian activists. Speaking in a semi-professional manner; no, most people can’t. The ability to successfully imitate people that you despise – truly imitate them, and not just lampoon them – is exceptionally difficult, because in order to think like somebody you have to empathize with them. The problem there is that it’s hard to be empathic toward somebody whom you hate.
Which brings us to this related item: “LATimes cites ‘Mein Kampf’ to attack Heartland.” Found via Watts Up With That, which has had wall-to-wall coverage of the Gleick incident.
More: Tim Blair has a round-up of what he calls “FakeGate Wake,” which concludes thusly:
In a sign of combat to come, Gleick has taken on a top Democratic operative and crisis manager, Chris Lehane. Lehane, who worked in the Clinton White House is credited for exposing the rightwing forces arrayed against the Democratic president. He was Al Gore’s press secretary during his 2000 run for the White House.
As one environmental campaigner said: “Now it’s gone nuclear.”
At the Tatler, Patrick Richardson proffers “A Few Thoughts on Peter Gleick and Journalism:”
Here’s the thing. Whichever side of the global warming debate you’re on, you deserve to be able to trust the people reporting on it. Actually the biggest asset any journalist has is his credibility. It’s vital that our readers be able to trust us.
What Gleick did is to violate that trust. His credibility is destroyed.
It’s sad, really.
As journalists, we are not well liked or respected generally. As a group we have really done a job on our prestige in this country. No one really believes we can be trusted to tell the truth any more.
For someone who has always regarded this profession as a calling, it’s frustrating.
I was taught that we have an important responsibility — not just to inform the public, but to act as a final check on the government.
Well, that’s what journalists were taught. What they believe is often another matter. (I had forgotten this tweet and the related examples from other leftwing journalists I rounded up for the post that links to it, or I would have included earlier in this post):
Or to put it another way:
Update: After fisking the questionable memo that also initially raised McArdle’s hackles, John Hinderaker of Power Line throws down the gauntlet: “So, Peter Gleick: if you are afraid to sue me, then admit that you are a liar and a hoaxer and slink away in shame.” Read the whole thing.™
Well,like anAL GOREtentive told his pack of pit chihuahuas…”By any means necessary”
It does not take a subtle appreciation of English prose to read the fake memo and see that the author is writing as though he is conspiring to do something “wrong”. The real problem here is the large number of young adults with college credentials who want to believe obviously dodgy information just because it gives them a chance to act out their beliefs. I wonder whether these childish individuals desperately searching for some sort of pseudo-religious motivation to yell, scream, and hurt can grow up quickly enough to avoid destroying the wealth and interpersonal trust inherited from previous generations. While it may be true that “If the fool persists in his folly, he will become wise.”, there is no promise that this wisdom will occur before, instead of after, the foolish behavior results in widespread destruction.
It’s not a Science; it’s a religion
No matter how much proof their “isn’t” the loons only scream louder
Taxing animal for farting is already alive and well in the EU
Carbom taxes on all planes in and out of Great Britain
The EPA shutting down 65,000 farmers for a smelt ?
And now Obama wants a Global Minimum Tax ??
The list is getting longer.
EPA regulation is choking the economy to the tune of $1 Trillion and climbing
We need a vote that gets this guy and his administration back to Chicago !!
“My judgment was blinded by my frustration with the ongoing efforts — often anonymous, well-funded, and coordinated — to attack climate science and scientists and prevent this debate, and by the lack of transparency of the organizations involved.”
So the skeptics are the ones trying to “prevent this debate” by disagreeing???? It sounds like the only “debate” this jackass wants to have is the one about how many billions of dollars we’re going to give him and his pals to “fix” the problem they otherwise don’t want to discuss. Someone please free us from “scientists” like this fraudulent scumbag.
“Here’s the thing. Whichever side of the global warming debate you’re on …”
Here’s the thing: *they don’t think it’s a debate*. Really. Look at the comparisons Gore and Pelley draw: the civil rights movement, the Holocaust. Now why would they conflate (alleged) science with historical fact? Simply because the latter is ironclad, irrefutable, “settled”.
This sleight of hand gives away the game. Of course history has its debates too — but note the cheerleaders conveniently choose examples with clear-cut “good and bad guys”. This is about power, not debates. Whatever works to muzzle the “enemies” is fair game; this Heartland memo is merely the latest example.
It’s not science: it’s politics.
islam is not a religion: it’s politics too.
This is how it works in socialist/totalitarian regimes. The first casualty is truth.
This story has more to come–one the most inflammatory documents Peter Gleick sent has been revealed as a forgery by Peter Gleick
1-metadata show that it came from the West Coast – Gleicks
2-the style of writing and poor punctuation in the forged document is consistent with Peter Gleick other writings.
Peter Gleick is in very deep trouble
1-he has already admitted to theft and fraud
2-he has now been revealed as a forger
Any even tenured academic would be fired for such behavior and would be employed in academia
-or any position of trust-ever again
Are you serious?
Trouble?
He will be rewarded, handsomely so, with (another) make-work job on the taxpayers dole, smug and condescendingly proud of his “martyrdom” in the fight against his enemies.
Think Bill Ayres
I taught a course called “Environmental Ethics.” Five students in it were in a program called “Environment Science,” which required no science – no biology (except one course in Field Ecology), no geology, no physics, etc. What they learned was to engage in politics. So I am not surprised that the self-styled “environmentalists” are ignoramuses.
The mystery solved on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkf9yhDx7RQ
Hey, just when I get skeptical about warming, we have the warmest or second warmest winter in the history of taking temperatures around here. On the other hand, Anchorage…
….and the coldest in europe in many years. The more things change the more they stay the same. The US specifially the lower 48 are the only warm places this winter. But since last winter was colder and more snow in the north east than any in over 10 years, I would guess it equils out.
Yes, I couldn’t believe it when my brother in Berlin emailed me that it was -10F. It hasn’t been -10 in my neck of the woods, Eastern Massachusetts, for thirty years. But that’s what makes global warming or cooling very difficult to figure out, which does not, though, prove that it is not happening.
As I have said before, every glacier that I have seen in North America and Iceland, has been receding for many years. That and the newly opening NW passage is pretty conclusive evidence of cumulative warming. But my approach is more about how to take advantage of warming, rather than stopping it. Greenlanders can grow a lot more veggies now, maybe the way they could in the MWP. My growing season is certainly longer.
They used to call this type of fake journalism “agitprop” when it was published in Pravda and the Daily Worker.
No.
She was the first one in the MSM, but give credit to Steve Mosher. He is one of the behind-the-scenes guys active on the climate blogs. He spotted the linguistic idiosyncrasies. McArdle actually credited him.