Penn State climate professor sues think tank, National Review

[IDemo]

Source: Washington Post

A Nobel Peace Prize winner and Penn State University climate science professor has sued a Washington-based think tank and a national magazine that called his scientific findings fraudulent and compared him to Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State football coach convicted of numerous counts of child molestation.

In a 37-page complaint filed Monday in D.C. Superior Court, Michael Mann and his attorney John B. Williams, charged the National Review and the Capitol Hill-based Competitive Enterprise Institute with six counts including libel and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The lawsuit is based on a July 13 article by Rand Simberg, published on the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s blog, titled “The Other Scandal in Unhappy Valley.” It followed an investigation, released this summer, that said some Penn State officials knew of Sandusky’s sexual abuse of minors before he was arrested and chose not to report them to authorities.

The article compared Sandusky to Mann, accusing the the scientist of “molesting data” about global warming. It was later summarized and linked to by the National Review; in that piece, National Review writer Mark Steyn says, “Not sure I’d have extended that metaphor all the way into the locker-room showers with quite the zeal Mr. Simberg does, but he has a point.”

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/penn-state-climate-professor-sues-think-tank-national-review/2012/10/23/27b92a86-1d4f-11e2-9cd5-b55c38388962_story.html

[Octafish]

1. Stand up to the bullies and their toadies.

Way to go, Professor!

[jerseyjack]

2. YEAH !!!!

[LongTomH]

3. I truly hope Professor Mann wins this case!

The global warming deniers have resorted to character assassination too many times.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, IDemo.

[Bainbridge Bear]

5. This is proof

that there are few limits to what these right-wing scum will do in order to smear someone who they regard as an enemy. Trying to compare a Nobel winner to Sandusky is a truly loathsome tactic. Even William F. Buckley would have demanded that this not appear in the National Review. That magazine is a waste of trees. I sincerely wish the professor success in this lawsuit.

[drm604]

6. Good for him.

They've begun attacking the character of scientists, this is the right response.

[Anthony McCarthy]

7. Liars should always be susceptible to being sued

into the flames of hell.

It was a tragic and stupid day when the courts gave liars permission to destroy the public good.

[savannah43]

8. I wonder if this is getting completely out of hand because of the pending election

or will it continue even afterward until the country is totally destroyed? Truth and civility have been knocked to the ground, and they have the booted foot of the henchmen for the 1% on their throats.

[reACTIONary]

9. FYI, The Competitive Enterprise Institute is said to be a...

... "pay-to-play", "full-service", so-called "think tank". "Pay-to-play" because (I've been told) they shop their policy positions around and don't take a position unless they are paid to do so. "Full service" (in their own words) because they actively advocate for their clients rather than just publish policy positions.

A "so called" think-tank because they are just PR shills and lobbyists for hire.