Thursday, August 11, 2011

Step Up and Be Counted

In a memoriam for Hugh Carey, former governor of New York, Linda Greenhouse steps up

Unexpectedly, I was asked to speak. Fully aware that the journalism police are quick to pounce on any colleague who dares express an opinion on a public issue or person, I nonetheless said what I thought: that Hugh Carey was the finest public official it had been my privilege to know.
The Revkins, Kloors, Flecks (yes you John) and the Yulsman's of the world should internalize that. Their balancing act has harmed the reputation of many and harmed all of us by allowing the Moranos, Singers and Moncktons to smear at will. Indeed, the power to step up and Al Gore the clowns is, as Joseph Welch showed, important for the survival of our civilization

The attacks on Michael Mann and Al Gore before him, and Joe Romm use any brickbat that can be manufactured to try and get folk to disown them. This removes strong advocates from the discussion.

Too often this tactic has been successful. Eli really doesn’t give a crap if Al Gore is fat, Michael Mann bald has a goatee, and Joe Romm shrill. What they are is mostly right, not perfect, but mostly right.

Some dyslexia corrected. . . .

21 comments:

willard said...

I duly acknowledge the strikethrough [Bart's] and welcome the reference to americanrhetoric.com

[Bart's] http://ourchangingclimate.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/climate-science-scientific-method-skeptics-not/#comment-13427

PS: Capcha is Warger, then proacti.

CapitalClimate said...

FWIW, it's Carey and Greenhouse.

Anonymous said...

Dr. Jay Cadbury, phd.

@Eli

How do you figure that these guys are mostly right? Eli, the earth is billions of years old, humanities time on earth is insignificant. I think you would at least agree, Fred Singer is a genius. I will concede that Mann is probably a genius. However, Singer seems to be the one that will debate, while Mann will not. These guys have to lead by example, Eli. Simply saying the science is settled and hiding behind a wall of moderation screens at realclimate is a recipe for failure.

Anonymous said...

Revkin is moving along to the good side, albeit slowly. And there are more than just Monckton and Morano out there changing minds away from the doomsday scenarios painted by the alarmists. The average person may not know much about albeidos and forcings, but they do know when they've been taken for a ride. Climate change has had it's 15 minutes of fame.

Oh yeah, and the Polar Bear study ... shark! JUMP!

(by hardycross)

EliRabett said...

You running for the 2011 Golden Horseshoe Award, Jay?

--------------
In Dashiell Hammett’s story The Golden Horseshoe, much of the action takes place in a bar of that name in Tijuana. At one point the narrator, an operative for the Continental Detective Agency, kills a few strategic seconds by studying the decorations:

I was reading a sign high on the wall behind the bar:

ONLY GENUINE PRE-WAR AMERICAN AND BRITISH WHISKEYS SERVED HERE

I was trying to count how many lies could be found in those nine words, and had reached four, with promise of more …

CapitalClimate said...

Robo-commenter b5230294-91bd-11e0-a606-000bcdcb5194,

"albeidos":
You can't even spell it.

THE CLIMATE WARS said...

As the CEO of the Thunderdome franchise , Al does not get a pass when we laugh at the professional wrestlers .

Dan Satterfield said...

The rabbit put it very succinctly in this Okie's opinion.

amoeba said...

Jay,

"humanities time on earth is insignificant" => spelling fail

Correction 'Fred Singer is a genius', should read 'Fred Singer is a liar'

What's your claimed PhD in? Stupidity and ignorance, or successfully feigning it?

Richard Mercer said...

Dr. Jay Cadbury, phd.
Fred Singer, like most of the well known skeptic scientists, is driven by political ideology. No matter how brilliant he is, he isn't using it to improve science. Indeed, he was once a promising scientist, until his political ideology overpowered his scientific integrity.

After all, Fred Singer is an expert on everything. He has been and expert for industry and against health and environmental safeguards on asbestos, CFCs that damage the protective ozone layer, acid rain, tobacco dangers, global warming.

They can always count on good old Fred.

bill said...

Golly, Dr Jay, was Joe McCarthy a genius?

Gee, the earth is billions of years old, so that looming comet strike is insignificant? I mean, as an argument it barely even rises to the level of daft.

J Bowers said...

Dr Jay Canbury pizzahome.delivery -- "How do you figure that these guys are mostly right?"

Even Al Gore was taught about climate by Roger Revelle.

"I think you would at least agree, Fred Singer is a genius."

No, he's clever and intelligent. That's not genius by any stroke of the imagination.

J Bowers said...

Sorry, should have been "Cadbury". Hangover. No apologies for pizza.homedelivery, though.

Anonymous said...

"Fred Singer is a genius"

Wow. Every day brings more evidence of people living in a bizarre parallel universe which barely touches ours.

--
Adam R.

frank -- Decoding SwiftHack said...

"Fully aware that the journalism police are quick to pounce on any colleague who dares express an opinion on a public issue or person"

It sounds as if the practice of 'journalistic neutrality' isn't rooted in rational thought, but rather in a mere reflexive fear that Unspecified Bad Things Will Happen. Hopefully more and more journalists will wake up and realize that 'journalistic neutrality' is a dumb idea.

-- frank

Lionel A said...

It still works even though The Golden Horseshoe meant something different here it being the title of another book about the exploits of German U-Boat Ace Otto Kretschmer and his U-99 to the conning tower of which Kretschmer had added horseshoes painted gold.

U-99 was sunk, just as Cadbury has been, although probably not because Kretschmer had placed his horseshoes like an Omega symbol so that all the luck ran out.

As for debates Cadbury, there are reasons why scientists dislike public forum debates where the malicious of intent can hide behind combinations of the Gish gallop, bluster and accusations of ad homimum (always ill found) all over the place.

Anonymous said...

It is a vile canard that President Reagan would stoop to installing a Genius as Chief Scientist of Amtrak.

Whatever Fred's present merits as a Falstaffian ghoul, lobbyist, and professional witness for patent trolls, his last Good Idea- 49 years ago, was the collisional origin of the moon, which he immediately offset by proposing Phobos to be an alien spaceship.

David B. Benson said...

Stroke your good luck rabett's foot instead.

Hank Roberts said...

> Golden Horseshoe
Nah, he's an exclusion junkie: search?q="booted+from+pretty+much+everywhere"

David B. Benson said...

But I don't want to be counted...

Anonymous said...

Snow Bunny says

The latest scientist to be attacked is Charles Monnett, wildlife researcher in Alaska, because he saw drowned polar bears.

Someone sicced the IG at the Dept. of Interior on him. The transcripts of his and his co-author's, Jeffrey Gleason, interrogations last February show IG Agents determine to check every possibility that the sightings of 4 floating polar bears were erroneous or faked. (Q: How did you know they were dead? A: Their intestines were spilling out.)

Interrogation resumed last week, under the rubric that the paper was not being investigated but management issues are. Transcripts are not yet available but the same paper was questioned again.

NYTimes had an editorial Saturday questioning the sense of it.