Wonk Room Report: The Washington Post Should Correct George Will’s Column
Wonk Room Report: The Washington Post Should Correct George Will’s Column
A new report from the Center for American Progress Action Fund challenges the Washington Post to correct George F. Will’s error-filled “Dark Green Doomsayers” column, published February 15th. “Matter of Fact” describes how Will has challenged the scientific basis of man-made global warming for years in his columns for The Washington Post, nationally distributed by the Washington Post Editors Group. These columns have been cited for errors in years past. The most recent is no exception.
The report explains how George Will’s “Dark Green Doomsayers” makes significant errors in depicting sea ice as a measure of global warming, the past decade of global warming, and the history of predictions of “global cooling.”
Download “Matter of Fact: The Washington Post Should Correct George Will’s ‘Dark Green Doomsayers’ Column” from the Wonk Room Resource Library.
6 Responses to “Wonk Room Report: The Washington Post Should Correct George Will’s Column”
Register
RSSLogin
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog RollAbout Wonk RoomContact Us
Donate
Forget it! George is right and you are wrong. Talk about the error in Arctic ice reading that you were touting for so long. But then you can’t admit a mistake can you.
February 23rd, 2009 at 10:30 pmI’ve always considered writers of opinion columns to be able to write whatever they wanted if it pleased their editors and readers.
February 25th, 2009 at 12:59 pmHow else would so many be able to say so little so often?
It is my understanding that reporters are to report the news in a true way – not their opinion. Corrections can be made. It is your responsibility.
February 25th, 2009 at 9:12 pmIn this case the problem with being wrong is the risk is huge. His delay contributes to increased consequences.
If a disaster is unfolding, and he participates in delaying the response, that is far more reprehensible than if he commented on anything else – perhaps something where he could just say mea culpa.
The risk is so huge, that this makes him to be a fool for taking such a risk. As he rides with the drunk driver, he is telling everyone in the car to take off their seat belts.
Has he planned how he will reverse himself? Or will he ride this all the way down?
February 28th, 2009 at 1:07 amWhy would anyone put credence in such a brief treatment of a scientific matter, written by a non-scientist, cherry picking a smattering of supposed “facts”?
February 28th, 2009 at 10:11 amAfter reading the NSIDC’s report, and its explanation thereof, one wonders how Will arrived at the conclusions that he did. It seems that he must have relied on a selectively condensed (and massaged) excerpt of the full report or, that he read the report himself and that he (unthinkable!) either misinterpreted or failed entirely to understand it. The Center clearly states that the interpolated corrections of erroneous data collected by older satellites, and revised by data collected by a newer, interlocking system do not, in any way, call into question the conclusions regarding the progressive loss of polar ice.
To be sure: Will is a columnist, not a reporter. But that distinction relieves neither he himself, nor the Washington Post from their obligation to refrain from deliberate distortion and invention.
February 28th, 2009 at 2:45 pm