Been Saying This For Years...

A climate scientist widely known for his “hockey stick” graph showing a steep climb in global temperature over the last century, can go ahead and sue two right-wing blogs for libel, a judge ruled last week.

The blogs compared the scientist, Michael E. Mann (pictured), to convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky. Mann teaches at Penn State University where Sandusky was a top assistant football coach under coaching legend Joe Paterno.

The case stems from two separate blog posts that ran in July of 2012. The first appeared on the web site OpenMarket.org and was then quoted approvingly at length in the online version of the conservative magazine National Review.

Both posts referenced a supposed scandal that conservative media labeled “Climategate.” The scandal involved a series of e-mails stolen by hackers off various university computers that were said to reveal prominent climate scientists discussing how to cover up data that contradicted their theory of global warming.

The “Climategate” scandal was widely discredited and the e-mails were shown to be taken out of context.

In the post quoted on National Review, writer Rand Simberg calls Mann, “the Jerry Sandusky of climate science, except that instead of molesting children, he has molested and tortured data in the service of politicized science.”

I've been warning folks for years - long before social media and whatnot, back in the dark days of Usenet and before the web whatsoever - what they say can come back to haunt them.   Now it has.  In a huge way.  What was done was stupid.  And a price will be paid.  Its just a lawsuit, right?  Might go either way, right?  Its free speech, right?

Lawyers already tried to have the case dismissed, but...

[Judge] Green ruled that Mann’s claims can go forward. She added that Mann’s case was likely to succeed “on the merits.”

“Plaintiff is a member of the scholarly academy and it is obvious that allegations of fraud could lead to the demise of his profession and tarnish his character and standing in the community,” the judge wrote.

 link.

What have I been saying all these years? 

Don't be stupid online.