Last month it was widely noted here and elsewhere that The New York Times hired Bret Stephens to write for the newspaper’s prized opinion page. Stephens came from the Wall Street Journal, where he plied his craft as climate change denier with a track record that can only be described as somewhere between laughable and dangerous. The Times tried to wave off criticism by explaining that “millions agree with” him.
Predictably, Stephens has now published an opinion piece that’s sure to be warmly received by anyone who’s been misled by years of industry-funded propaganda. We won’t be linking to that material here, but we will refer you to one of the best responses that should be read in its entirety, thanks to Joe Romm and Think Progress:
The column is so deeply flawed that New York Times reporters and news editors immediately started slamming it on Twitter. Even Andy Revkin, the former Times climate reporter and blogger whom Stephens quotes twice in his piece, slammed Stephens’ piece on twitter as featuring “straw men” and other flaws. .. Indeed, the basic errors in Stephens’ piece are so basic it is stunning that the New York Times published them — especially in the Trump era, where the paper advertises itself as a defender of truth.
The New York Times’ cynical clickbait strategy may not pan out like they hoped, at least not here. But we will gladly link to competitors who invest the time and energy into rebutting those claims and getting the science right. And we heartily encourage other sites that value science to follow suit.