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Robinson: Will "Cross[ed] the Line" With Climate Change Distortions
Add Eugene Robinson to the rapidly growing list of Washington Posties who are sick of George Will's efforts to mislead readers about global warming science.
Via Mathew Yglesias, Asked by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow about the increase in "made up stuff" in the news lately, Robinson brought up his fellow Post columnist's string of distortions on climate change.
Here's the exchange:
Maddow: Eugene, I feel like factchecking politicians is a full-time job and it is a very fun one. But does it sort of feel like there is just more made up stuff in the daily back and forth of political news right now than usual?Robinson: It certainly does, and it's distressing. I think there's a distinction here among the examples we cite. What George Will did was cherrypick a sentence in a report, be very persnickety in the way he parsed his sentences, and end up making it sound as if the report had said the exact opposite of what it actually said. He was persnickety enough that his editors, who happen to be my editors, felt he didn't cross the line. I thought he did. And the ombudsman agreed with me, actually, and wrote about it in last Sunday's paper.
Watch the video:
Yesterday, we told you about push-back against Will from Post reporters, editors, a blogger, and even the paper's cartoonist.
Still nothing from Will's nominal bosses at the editorial page, though.

















Stick to writing about baseball, Will. (Hey, has that dweeb ever actually played a game of baseball?? Cf. Dana Carvey's hilarious SNL impression....)
April 9, 2009 11:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Didn't Stevens get off a technicality. I mean the same kind of technicality that the neocon rightwing nutjob Republicans always complain about. So far I haven't heard any Republicans complaining about Stevens going free because of this technicality. Yet, another case of what's good for the goose, evidently doesn't apply to you if your a Republican loser.
April 9, 2009 11:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Continuum,
yes, just like Ollie North. The wingers rail against technicalities until they need one.
April 9, 2009 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Will is a twit of the max degree who is so up tight that he figits sitting around anyone else when he is on george's roundtable. I think he recognizes that he is quickly becoming irrelevant.
April 9, 2009 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Where Will crossed the line wasn't in the factual error, we all do that, but in refusing to correct it and continuing to use it.
We also need to be clear that the pattern is the problem. If it was just this one wrong citation of a study, no big deal, but he made other factual problems he won't correct, and he keeps doing it.
April 9, 2009 1:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
George Will didn't make any "errors" in his column. He is a deliberate liar. His misrepresentations of the science were intentional, calculated and carefully worded to deceive his readers. He has repeated the same deliberate lies, in multiple Washington Post op-ed columns going back several years. And George Will doesn't invent these lies -- they are spoon-fed to him by various ExxonMobil-funded propaganda mills masquerading as "conservative" think-tanks.
George Will lies, for money. It's as simple as that. He's a bought-and-paid-for professional liar.
April 9, 2009 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
IOKIYAR!!!
April 10, 2009 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink