O hai modern journalism. You suck.

[lagilman]

Newspapers Retract 'Climategate' Claims, but Damage Still Done

A lie can get halfway around the world while the truth is still putting its boots on, as Mark Twain said (or “before the truth gets a chance to put its pants on,” in Winston Churchill’s version), and nowhere has that been more true than in "climategate." In that highly orchestrated, manufactured scandal, e-mails hacked from computers at the University of East Anglia’s climate-research group were spread around the Web by activists who deny that human activity is altering the world’s climate in a dangerous way, and spun so as to suggest that the scientists had been lying, cheating, and generally cooking the books.


h/t to marinarusalka

Comments

Oh, now you've gotten me started...

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

The Washington Post fired a guy for having a private discussion about how he loathes Matt Drudge and Rush Limbaugh (http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/26/post-blogger-quits-after-limbaugh-drudge-comments-were-made-public/) leaked to and published by a right wing hack who got turned down for membership in the private listserve where the conversation happened.

But you know what? All of this is small fry compared to the lack of care that went into reporting on the lead up the the invasion of Iraq. We're stuck there, we poured a trillion dollars into the country, we can't get out, can't get the place safe for it's inhabitants (it's less safe than when Saddam was running it!) and because it's eating up all our troops, we can't make Afghanistan safe either.

But god forbid we question or criticize American policy, because that means we hate the troops, right?

Feh.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

That's the drawback to the Net. People can filter out what they don't believe, and only select that which reinforces their beliefs. The Net becomes an isolator of people, rather than a uniter.

[jperceval.livejournal.com]

Phil Jones, the East Anglia researcher most browbeaten in climategate, tried to commit suicide. Bad journalism ruined this man's life.