Washington Post Notes that “Strom” Inhofe’s an Idiot. Hello, Have you Read George Will Lately? March 20, 2015

The Washington Post has been writing some scathing editorials on the towering dumbness of folks like Senator Strom..ahem..Jim Inhofe, whose recent “snowball” stunt so perfectly captured the current level of stupid in denierville. And, to be fair, the Post made a major step forward in hiring Chris Mooney, whose writings on climate and science in general are light years above what passes for science reporting in most major newspapers.

But, jeez, Washpost, have you taken a look at what your columnists have been doing for the last, oh, twenty or so critical years?

Washington Post:

It may be worth pointing out that another steaming pile of climate ignorance has a comfy home within the Washington Post itself.

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting:

The Washington Post (3/1/15) is afraid that Sen. Jim Inhofe’s ridiculous claims about climate change are going to be a “national embarrassment.” It takes a much more tolerant attitude toward the climate deniers in its own employ. Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, took to the floor of the Senate to try to debunk the “hysteria on global warming” with a snowball and a photo of a snow fort. As the Post accurately notes: Global warming is a long-term and worldwide trend. The fact that it’s cold at one place on the Earth at one point in time does not undermine the contention that industrial greenhouse-gas emissions are warming the planet over the course of decades. After remarking that polling on recognition of global warming varies with the weather, the editorial points out: “Politicians worthy of Americans’ trust dispel this sort of ascientific thinking–they don’t encourage it.” So what does it say of the Washington Post‘s worthiness of Americans’ trust that one of its most prominent columnists engages in just this sort of “ascientific thinking”? In a column in Newsweek (12/18/06), then owned by the Washington Post, Post columnist George Will presented this as an amusing irony: Two US explorers went to the North Pole to study how global warming threatens polar bears. They had planned to go last year, but were forced to delay Project Thin Ice because of unusually heavy snow and ice. Yes, the fact that it still snows at the North Pole was used by Will to cast doubt on climate science. If anything, that’s even more absurd than bringing a snowball from the Mall as a climate-denial prop. Later, on ABC‘s This Week (7/8/12), Will dismissed a record-breaking heat wave, saying, “I grew up in central Illinois in a house without air conditioning. What is so unusual about this?” Is that what the Washington Post considers scientific thinking? George Will’s latest attack on “climate Cassandras” appeared earlier this year in the Post (1/7/15), where he offers “historical evidence of enormously consequential episodes of climate change not produced by human activity” as a reason to be sanguine about current climate disruptions that are created by people. Will isn’t the only prominent climate change denier given a prestigious soapbox by the Post. Charles Krauthammer, for one, has used his Post column (2/20/14) to attack climate scientists as “white-coated propagandists,” and has gone on TV (Fox News Special Report, 5/6/14; cited in Talking Points Memo, 5/8/14) to mock climate change science as “superstition,” like the “rain dance of Native Americans.” And the Post (12/9/09) made room on its op-ed page for Sarah Palin to explain how “we can’t say with assurance that man’s activities cause weather changes.” Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt (Media Matters, 8/26/14) has justified printing this kind of climate know-nothingism by saying, “I’m more inclined to take op-eds that challenge our editorials than just kind of join the chorus.” When similar arguments are made by Inhofe on the floor of the Senate, the Post calls them “benighted complacency”; maybe Hiatt finds benighted complacency challenging. Of course, the music of the chorus itself can be rather discordant, as when the Post (10/5/12) called on readers to join in “the biggest environmental fight of our time–against climate change”….by embracing fracking (FAIR Blog, 10/11/12). You can write the Washington Post at letters@washpost.com. Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.

Interesting that C-Span thought it worthwhile to post the Snowball stunt in a video clip, that has gotten half a million views so far.