Fakegate: Are you being served?
Heartland Institute has fired the first legal volley at DeSmogBlog.
They’ve issued a letter requesting their documents, and the faked one, be removed from DeSmogBlog and other sites that posted them:
…we respectfully demand: (1) that you remove both the Fake Memo and the Alleged Heartland Documents from your web site; (2) that you remove from your web site all posts that refer or relate in any manner to the Fake Memo and the Alleged Heartland Documents; (3) that you remove from your web site any and all quotations from the Fake Memo and the Alleged Heartland Documents; (4) that you publish retractions on your web site of prior postings; and (5) that you remove all such documents from your server.
Greg Laden received the same notice, and his genius defense is that he can’t tell if the email is authentic. It’s a race now to see if Heartland can sue Laden out of existence before Tallbloke does it.
It took less than a week for hippie triumphalism over ‘denialgate’ to turn into a full-fledged fiasco of epic proportions. DeSmogBlog is defiant for now, but that’ll only last until they get some good legal advice. Unless their lawyers are as good at lawyering as DeSmog is at PR. If that turns out to be the case, the Internet may collapse in on itself under the weight of the schadenfreude.
There just isn’t enough popcorn.
brennan:
February 20th, 2012 at 2:03 pm
The unfortunate part of this as a spectator sport is the legal process is slow, but the victories will be sweet for both HI and Roger.
MostlyHarmless:
February 20th, 2012 at 7:02 pm
Posterity will bin Laden (see what I did there?).
Byron:
February 20th, 2012 at 10:28 pm
It was Gleik wot dunnit !
http://joannenova.com.au/2012/02/gleik-admits-his-guilt-deception-used-to-get-documents-in-fakegate-apologizes/
Still nothing certain on who created the fake memo however , but from the timeline it places the creation of the fake in the lap of either Gleik or the first website to post it . I suspect the new top rated show will be ” When Warmists Attack (each other) ” Get comfortable on the couch and pass that popcorn
Rog Tallbloke:
February 21st, 2012 at 8:04 am
Heh.
I’ll have to tell my libel lawyer to get his skates on before HI empties Laden’s pockets. Oi! Bast! I was first ok? You can have De-Smugblag. :)
Typical warmies, only too happy to leap on any ‘evidence’ which confirms their preconceptions. Even when it’s obviously cooked up.
dailybayonet:
February 21st, 2012 at 8:44 am
brennan: It’s okay if the legal process is slow. The Himalayan glaciers aren’t melting as we were promised, so we need something slow, fun and inevitable to watch.
Tallbloke: We don’t have betting shops here, let me know if William Hill has odds on who gets Laden’s cash first ;)