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The upcoming libel trial launched by Michael "Hockey Stick" Mann against Mark Steyn is taking some fascinating turns.
For those unfamiliar with the case, Mann, who is inventor of the widely discredited "Hockey Stick" graph that supposedly proves man-made global warming, is suing Steyn for writing " Mann could be said to be the Jerry Sandusky of climate science, except that instead of molesting children, he has molested and tortured data in the service of politicized science that could have dire economic consequences for the nation and planet.”
In PJ Media, Kathy Shaidle draws some interesting analogies between the Mann/Steyn case and the famous law suit and subsequent trials initiated by Jerry Falwell suing Larry Flynt for allegedly libeling the so-called Moral Majority leader in a Hustler magazine parody ad.That case in which the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Flynt's favor, and which was depicted in the Milos Forman movie The People vs Larry Flynt, advanced the legal right of the media to parody pubic figures.
It's an interesting analogy, which becomes amusing in that it casts free speech champion Steyn in the role of Larry Flynt, Naturally, that means that I'm going to have to figure out how pull some strings to get an invitation to the Steyn mansion.
In another significant development, Mann has crapped out of a similar law suit against Canadian academic Dr. Tim Ball, and in the aftermath of that, Steyn is launching a $10 million counter-suit against "Hockey Stick" Mann.
There's a small difference. The Flynt-Falwell parody ad in Hustler clearly indicated that it was a parody.
ReplyDeleteFurther, no reasonable person reading it thought that Jerry Falwell would go to the pages of Hustler to admit that he was fucking his mother in an outhouse.
The Steyn case is different in almost every imaginable way.
The Sandusky reference is the tits and ass of the case, but it appears Steyn can't or won't prove that Mann deliberately manipulated scientific evidence, and that's why he's fucked.
For example, I can't say that Chick Fil-A creates its special sauce from the tears of gay teenagers, although I THINK it is.
Also, I'm kidding.
Maybe, but it's still a good excuse to have to research Hustler to get background on this ;-)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Mann's failing to produce the data he was required for disclosure in the Ball case is telling and may indeed point the way to how things will go in the suit against Steyn.
"In another significant development, Mann has crapped out of a similar law suit against Canadian academic Dr. Tim Ball,"
ReplyDeleteThe case has not been dismissed. All the other climate skeptic sites are correcting this misinformation.
Mann still hasn't complied with the discovery requirements in the Ball case, so we'll see.
ReplyDelete