Forum Post: Libe(R)tarian Think Tank takes a Hit For Defamation of Climate Scientist

Who says these guy are all about responsibility, truth, freedom and liberty?

OK, I'll give you they want the f(R)eedom to smear whoever and whatever they please.

Plus of course they want the libe(R)ty to spread lies about climate science that might damage their corporate founders.

I hope this is the first of a long succession of court cases they lose.

"A judge for the D.C. Superior Court on Thursday refused to let libertarian think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and conservative news site National Review off the hook from a defamation lawsuit brought by climatologist Michael Mann, saying the sites’ musings about the accuracy of Mann’s research may not be protected by the First Amendment.

Mann had sued the outlets in 2012, claiming they published defamatory articles accusing him of academic fraud and comparing him to a convicted child molester, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. Specifically, Mann alleged that CEI published — and then National Review republished — an article calling 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 that could have dire economic consequences for the nation and planet.”"

Comparing a climate scientist to a child molester is about as low as you can go, but libe(R)tarians have no shame.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/24/3205111/mann-defamation-lawsuit/