Time Magazine: "You can't drink from a poisoned well."
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February 22 2012
Bryan Walsh: "Credibility is nonnegotiable
in journalism."Bryan Walsh, an environmental journalist at Time and man-made global-warming "alarmist", is wading into the Gleick mess, more or less denouncing his tactics while taking the usual jabs at Heartland, Climategate, and conservatives in the process. Couching his article as a Liberal vs. Conservative tête-à-tête is a typical MSM scorched-earth machination:
As his apology concedes, what Gleick did was wrong. No reputable investigative reporter — certainly not one who worked at TIME — would be employed for long after obtaining insider information by lying the way Gleick did. Think of the outcry over James O'Keefe's use of sting tactics to record employees from the now defunct political group ACORN as they gave advice to a supposed pimp and prostitute (actually O'Keefe and an associate).
Credibility is nonnegotiable in journalism — it's the only way we can believe what we read or watch — and if a reporter lies in the pursuit of facts, the resulting story will be much harder to believe, even if it really is true. Gleick isn't a journalist — though as a regular blogger on the Huffington Post, he may qualify in a new media sense — but he was still creating a story. You can't drink from a poisoned well.
Many climate advocates, while acknowledging that Gleick made a mistake, are calling him a heroic whistle-blower. "For his courage, his honor and for performing a selfless act of public service, [Gleick] deserves our gratitude and applause," wrote Richard Littlemore of DeSmogBlog. But the prize for which Gleick broke the rules and damaged his own credibility hardly seems worth it. The alleged memos seem to confirm that the Heartland Institute is trying to push its highly skeptical view of climate science in the public sphere, which is only surprising if you've paid exactly zero attention to the climate debate over the past decade.
…snip…
The Heartland Institute seems to be mulling its legal options for now, though in the court of karma it may simply be getting its just due. Back in 2009, when a still unknown hacker stole and posted thousands of private e-mails from climate scientists in the controversy that became known as Climategate, Heartland didn't seem too worried about the provenance of the documents. "This is new and real evidence that [climate scientists] should examine and then comment on publicly," Heartland president Bast wrote after the e-mails surfaced in 2009. That the "new and real evidence" had been hacked didn't bother Heartland any more than the fact that many of the Heartland memos were obtained deceitfully has much bothered many climate activists even after Gleick's admission.
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This piece by 'Time' is also another example of leftist duplicity. They pretend that O'Keefe committed some nefarious act, when hidden cameras are used regularly by investigative journalists. How many times has ABC busted child molesters this way? The left just does not like their crimes to be recorded and broadcast.
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