Nobody Here But Us Rubes III

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For the third time in six days, The New York Times feels obligated to hit us over the head with how stupid/uniformed/naive/fundamentalist people are in the Central U.S.

Today, they take on the good people of Indiana. Of course, Indiana is the home of two great universities, Notre Dame and Purdue. It is also home of the vibrant city of Indianapolis.  Having been to Indiana -- numerous times -- I can attest that virtually all of the people I have met are intelligent and friendly. But, you would never get that impression from the article.

I'm not going to take the time to outline all of the things factually wrong with the global warming coverage in this story (see Rubes I and Rubes II and you'll get the idea). I believe the real agenda of this story is given away by the fact it is a story classified under "Politics" (look at the very top). Interestingly, Roger Pielke, Jr., hardly a global warming "denier," has an article about global warming science/politics/and the media on his blog today.  His posting concludes...

The scientific community, particularly as related to climate change, continues to struggle with an authoritarian impulse, characterized by continued efforts to serve as gatekeepers to public debate and efforts to delegitimize views that they disagree with.  ...  In fact, if the media has made mistakes in the past, it has been in being too deferential to those in the scientific community who seek to limit debate and discussion.  

Exactly!

There was a time, not so long ago, when the NYT kept its news and editorial coverage separate. Based on these three stories, that seems to be a thing of the past.

In Rubes II, I pointed out that the NYT company's stock price is down more than 70% in just the last five years. If they keep publishing these offensive articles, I predict they won't see a recovery in their stock price anytime soon.

UPDATE:  Apparently, the Wall Street Journal agrees. See second item.

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