Posted on 11/09/2007 5:57:05 AM PST by MNJohnnie
Rush Limbaugh was hoaxed today by a very slick and superficially plausible Global Warming fraud. This resembles the kind of Black PR operation we have just been warning about. The trick is to plant a plausible story that fits a conservative theme, in this case skepticism about anthropogenic GlobWarm.
The hoax looks very professional. A fraudulent scientific journal was created on the web, called the "Journal of Geoclimatic Studies." The journal is fake, the article claiming to disprove the popular Global Warming meme is fake, the Editorial Board is fake, and the authors are faked.
The key to this fraud is its professionalism. All the visible features of the hoax are superficially possible. They do not stand up to deeper examination, but the hoaxers succeeded in fooling Rush for some minutes before he caught it.
The Left is bound to trumpet their momentary success as a proof that the GlobWarm skeptics are wrong.
Two possibilities. One is a bunch of smart grad students at MIT or Caltech. That's the innocent explanation, and we can all have a good laugh.
The other possibility is a very slick dirty trick from the Left.
It could be hard to distinguish between the two, since college students also tend to be Leftist True Believers. We will probably find out more in the coming days. The web allows a lot of back-tracing.
We have previously warned about likely Black PR in the blogosphere. It is possible that others have been planted. We will undoubtedly see other Black PR ops as the election season heats up.
James Lewis blogs at dangeroustimes.wordpress.com/
Gaius at Blue Crab Boulevard was on to the hoax yesterday, and warned about it. Twice. Today he warns that he also thinks this was a professional black op, intended to discredit global warming dissidents.
Good work that not enough people saw.
Yep, and he Manned up and quickly admitted it. A liberal would have tried to hide the fact. He still has my respect.
He will no doubt report to the nearest golf course to serve his punishment.
It will be added to the five minutes out of 18,000 hours of broadcast time that the Libs like to quote over and over again.
Rush only claims to be right 98.4% of the time. As opposed to Libs, who are right 1.6% of the time.
The Left is bound to trumpet their momentary success as a proof that the GlobWarm skeptics are wrong.
So, the idea here is "I lied to you, you fell for it, therefore people should agree with my policies."
Huh?
I heard him noting:
“John Coleman, the founder of the Weather Channel, penned an article on Wednesday in which he describes the global warming hysteria as “the greatest scam in history.”
And now the website is shut down, almost as if it’s sole purpose was to spoof Rush. Hmmmm
Remember, you are dealing with people who believe that the TANG documnets are genuine and a Rovian plant all at the same time.
Rush should have followed his instincts and checked the story out before including it in his stacks of stuff. It is particularly sloppy because it appeared that his source warned him about the hoax. Rush misunderstood the warning as a confirmation even though it was clear to me, and no doubt many other listeners, that the story was bogus. I think he did say he was operating on very little sleep at the start of his show.
Rush becomes very irritated when people point out that he is not very scientifically literate. I think his affinity and comfort with technical matters such as broadcasting, PC's, and airplanes misleads him into believing that he has a ready grasp of more demanding material.
This should be a lesson to us all. We should always be careful not to just accept every thing at face value if we think it fits our view of the world - we must be very discerning to sift out those things that can’t be substantiated.
My friends and I refer to it as pro bono detective work, as we are looking for the "real killers."
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"Remember, you are dealing with people who believe that the TANG documnets are genuine and a Rovian plant all at the same time."
As well as Valerie Plame being listed in the covert edition of Who's Who.
And so comes to mind Vince Foster and the Clipper Chip, TWA 800 and terrorists, and maybe Oklahoma City and Carol Howe.
ML/NJ
~~ AGW™ ping~~
” A fraudulent scientific journal was created on the web, called the
“Journal of Geoclimatic Studies.” “
For most folks, even culturally-aware folks like Rush...
it’s hard to believe how many scientific/research journals there are.
IIRC, there’s even a “Journal of Suicide”.
To be careful, folks shouldn’t take at face value a citation from
a “scientific journal”.
Usually they have a website. And should have links to archived issues
(although you have to pay for most).
But, even at that, the best thing for Rush to do would be to send
one of his students at the EIB University over to a major university library.
See if there are back issues of said journal in the stacks.
Then select a couple of articles and call some of the authors to
verify they did produce said article.
Yep, fact-checking can be a long-winded pain in the @$$.
That’s why Republicans/conservatives usually do a better job at
it than zoned-out liberals/Democrats.
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