WaPo Punked by Berkeley Warmist Posing as Skeptic
Yesterday, in what appears to have been a not particularly sweat-breaking research enterprise, blogger Don Surber at the Charleston Daily Mail demonstrated that the Richard Muller, a Berkley scientist who the Washington Post's Brad Plumer declared to be a "cliimate skeptic," has been a believer in human-caused global warming -- since the 1980s.
Muller convinced Plumer that as a result of looking at matters more closely, he has now become convinced that his skepticism was unwarranted. In Plumer's words, "Muller’s team appears to have confirmed the basic tenets of climate science." Surber smelled insincerity, and found supporting evidence quite quickly, which of course makes one wonder why Plumer didn't even bother to look for it, or was so clumsy that he failed to find any (bolds are mine):
WaPo’s “skeptic” actually has backed global warming for 30 years
... physicist Richard Muller of Berkeley — embraced the theory of man-made global warming 30 years ago. An online search easily disproved his claim of skepticism. He co-authored a book, “Physics For Future Presidents,” that explained climate change among other things. Now he has re-branded himself a former skeptic — the better to sell global warming.
... Richard Muller is not who he says he is. He is an advocate of the theory of man-made global warming.
... From Grist on October 6, 2008 (Note the title, "Author and physicist Richard A. Muller chats with Grist about getting science back in the White Hous" [sic] -- Ed.): "The bottom line is that there is a consensus — the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] — and the president needs to know what the IPCC says. Second, they say that most of the warming of the last 50 years is probably due to humans." ... "back in the early ’80s, I resigned from the Sierra Club over the issue of global warming. At that time, they were opposing nuclear power. What I wrote them in my letter of resignation was that, if you oppose nuclear power, the U.S. will become much more heavily dependent on fossil fuels, and that this is a pollutant to the atmosphere that is very likely to lead to global warming.
Gosh, in prior eras getting deceived so easily might have caused a reporter such as Plumer to be the subject of disciplinary action. Does anyone think we'll see any of in this instance?
Odds of WaPo retracting this story: About the same as the chance that they'll retract the garbage the paper produced on Thursday about Marco Rubio, which John Podhoretz at Commentary described on Friday as "one of the more disgraceful pieces of personal hit journalism in memory."
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
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Comments
Must still be...
Submitted by P. Aaron on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 5:13pm.
...a lot of bird cages out there to line w/the post.
Where is PETA?
Submitted by drsamherman on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 9:26pm.
Surely putting WaPo in your cat's litter pan or bird's cage must be SOME kind of animal abuse? And to think they even wrap fish with that rag.....
In Old media, journalism is dead.
Submitted by Ashrak on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 5:14pm.
Only advocacy exist there.
Journalism exists today in New Media.
Authorized journalists are anything but.
Yet another example of how
Submitted by TerryWest on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 8:22pm.
Yet another example of how the already fine line between tabloid and main stream news / journalism has become blurred.
Why research, why worry about facts and disclosure if the majority of readers / viewers dont question the integrity of the information, it's a risk the old media takes often.
The D's discredited the
Submitted by amyshulk on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 7:41pm.
The D's discredited the gov't. in the 60's, and today are shocked - shocked I tell you - that we want a smaller less intrusive gov't.
The msm discredited themselves in the 60's {I sense a theme} and and now shocked... we don't trust them.
In the 70's, I bought the vision of the future of solar, and water powered cars - now they pushed too fast after decades of not being able to overcome the pesky physics that says no other energy source is as dense {packs a better puch} than oil.
Gee, you think they will be shocked when more and more of us tune out their "clean energy, it's for the earth/gaia/the children" bs when they constantly discredit themselves???
Ronald Reagan
Yellow Journalism survives to
Submitted by Minarchian on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 8:03pm.
Yellow Journalism survives to this day
A gift that keeps on giving.
Submitted by 4Deuce on Mon, 10/24/2011 - 5:15pm.
While it was a celebratory day for me when I canceled my 35-year WaPo subscription, the real joy reverberates in my heart at least weekly - when I get mailings and phone calls from The WaPo almost begging me to accept ever deeper discounts on a new subscription to Pravda West. Had I just cancelled and been left alone, I would have been happy. But getting fawning, continuous pleadings from the now desperate WaPo is pure Valhalla for me.