It would be easy to dismiss the attempt by the leftist groups Credo Mobilize and Forecast the Facts to prevent the Washington Post from publishing Charles Krauthammer's February 20 column ("The Myth of 'Settled Science'") as the whining of immature children who cover their ears and say "la-la, we can't hear you, and we're going to shut you up" every time they come across inconvenient facts.
Howard Kurtz takes the failed effort more seriously, and properly so, given that the petitioners are constantly trying to convince WaPo, the New York Times, and eventually the rest of the establishment press to do what the censors at the Los Angeles Times have already done: stop publishing any op-ed or letter to the editor from anyone they would consider a "climate change denier." Excerpts from Kurtz's Monday "Media Buzz" post at Fox News, plus a Fox News Special Report video showing Krauthammer brilliantly summarizing his column in 89 seconds, follow the jump.
First, from Kurtz's post (bolds are mine throughout this post):
Heating up: Climate change advocates try to silence Krauthammer
Charles Krauthammer says it right up front in his Washington Post column: “I’m not a global warming believer. I’m not a global warming denier.”
He does, however, challenge the notion that the science on climate change is settled and says those who insist otherwise are engaged in “a crude attempt to silence critics and delegitimize debate.”
How ironic, then, that some environmental activists launched a petition urging the Post not to publish Krauthammer’s column on Friday.
Their response to opinions they disagree with is to suppress the speech.
Brad Johnson (@ClimateBrad), the editor of HillHeat.com and a former Think Progress staffer, boasted on Twitter that 110,000 people had urged the newspaper “to stop publishing climate lies” like the Krauthammer piece.
... these folks believe that censorship is preferable. Why engage Krauthammer when they might just be able to employ pressure tactics to silence him? And what’s the difference between this and shouting down a speaker at a town hall?
Krauthammer told me the petition-signers “showed up just in time to make precisely the point I made in the column.”
When it comes to free speech, he says, “they don’t even hide it anymore. Now they proudly want certain arguments banished from discourse. The next step is book burning. So the question of the day is: Can you light a Kindle?
“Is there anything more anti-scientific than scientific truths being determined by petition and demonstration?”
Well, there is one thing which is more anti-scientific: Media outlets kowtowing to the climate thugs.
Here's that Special Report video:
Krauthammer's wrap, about the real-world effect of buying the "settled science" nonsense:
“So the arrogance of this is rather appalling. But worse is the application of it to our economy, shutting the coal industry, herding us into mass transit, getting us out of our larger cars, all of this is driven by this ideology, which in and of itself is a matter almost of theology.”
Its "god" is government. Their goal is control, which inherently involves silencing opposition and suppressing contrary information.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
