Sunday, March 02, 2008

Time to Goeglein the climate denialists?

Tim Goeglein, a fairly-important Bush White House aide, committed at least 20 acts of plagiarism over the last 8 years, only to lose his job several hours after one blogger caught one act of plagiarism (synopsis here, the post that started it with a fascinating comment thread is here).

I think many climate denialists don't believe what they're saying or at least are willing to be deceptive to push their opinion. If their ethics allow deception, they might have taken the next step of intellectual theft. We need to check them out for plagiarism. I think Steve Milloy is the most likely, although I don't have any proof of it, just a feeling.

How to check denialists out in a coordinated fashion so we don't re-cover old ground is a bit of a problem. All I can think of is to put a notice on their Wikipedia Talk page about what articles have been checked. Any other suggestions would be welcome.

Apparently Doonesbury had a cartoon during Watergate where investigators wished that Nixon would just rob a bank, as that was the only way to get him. I kind of feel like this idea is the same thing. But they may have actually done it, like Goeglein.

UPDATE: Walter Williams provides hilarious comments in defense of Goeglein at the link above. Turns out he's a climate denialist. The circle is complete.

UPDATE 2: In comments, John Mashey points to Tim Lambert's discovery that Klaus-Martin Schulte plagiarized Benny Peiser (of all people) and Chris Monckton. It doesn't seem to have made enough of a splash, but hopefully will make any reputable journal steer clear of Schulte.

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