{"id":979,"date":"2007-06-25T10:52:40","date_gmt":"2007-06-25T16:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php\/index.php\/2007\/06\/25\/bogus-science\/"},"modified":"2015-04-27T12:20:53","modified_gmt":"2015-04-27T17:20:53","slug":"bogus-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=979","title":{"rendered":"Bogus Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gary Miller has the best introduction to Bogus Doug’s evisceration<\/a> of Brian Lambert’s call for media censorship of the global warming debate:<\/p>\n

Doug Williams demonstrates why he is duty-bound to never again take 6 months off from blogging by\u00a0offering this extraordinary post<\/font><\/a> on Brian Lambert\u2019s global warming pronouncements.<\/p>\n

In the span of just a few paragraphs, Doug demonstrates Lambert\u2019s unfamiliarity with the scientific method.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But don’t take Gary’s word for it.\u00a0 Read Doug’s post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A highlight:<\/p>\n

Brian Lambert has written a screed<\/a> a bit wordier, but no sillier about conservatives. But we shouldn’t mock. He’s in his terribly serious mode, you see. He’s trying to explain that he – failed media critic Brian Lambert – has figured out the high holy scientific truths journalists ought to respect.<\/p>\n

The ethical challenge for journalists and journalism (as opposed to infotainment personalities in “the media”) is stark. It means accepting what the best available science has now concluded is fact about global warming \u2014 that it’s happening and human activity is an aggravating if not principal cause \u2014 and pulling the plug on spurious “debate”<\/strong> engendered by conservative ideologues, much like what credible news organizations have done with Holocaust-deniers and creationists.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course to anyone with a degree studying science as opposed to journalism it’s a grand load of hooey on it’s face. What exactly is a phrase like “accepting what the best available science has now concluded is fact about global warming” supposed to mean? Real science hasn’t “concluded” that any future predictions – about global warming or anything else – are “fact,” because that’s not how science works. And “pulling the plug on spurious ‘debate'” is about as blatant a rejection of the scientific method as one could propose.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Doug shows in tall block letters the scientific illiteracy which is so comical when coming from a cartoon like Lambert – but so dangerous from actual reporters:<\/p>\n

It’s child’s play to find leading<\/a> experts<\/a> in climate science dissenting<\/a> from the IPCC report. Yet that’s not something Lambert even finds relevant. Because “for journalists the debate phase has ended.” Science goes in story phases, don’t you know. It’s not really about the search for truth, it’s about framing the narrative. I don’t think he intended to be nearly so honest, but wow is that ever telling.<\/p>\n

The other telling thing here is how Lambert has drifted into the position that journalists should trust the scientific pronouncements of political<\/em> scientific bodies. I know he thinks this is a special and singular scientific issue unlike any other before or likely to come after. But that just illustrates his naivety. Especially in the modern age, scientific funding is driven to a large extent by crisis-mongering. If Lambert is suggesting – and it seems he is – that in the case of a crisis journalists must abandon their skepticism, he’s calling for journalists to become little more than government propagandists. And what could possibly go wrong there?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the whole thing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And Gary was right, Doug; I hope you’re good and rested.\u00a0 We’re gonna need you.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gary Miller has the best introduction to Bogus Doug’s evisceration of Brian Lambert’s call for media censorship of the global warming debate: Doug Williams demonstrates why he is duty-bound to never again take 6 months off from blogging by\u00a0offering this extraordinary post on Brian Lambert\u2019s global warming pronouncements. In the span of just a few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,4,18,51,49],"tags":[333],"class_list":["post-979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-war","category-media","category-pc","category-liberal-tyranny","category-science","tag-brian-lambert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=979"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53017,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions\/53017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}