In a rather bizarre move, the co-authors of Willie Soon's most recent paper have issued a letter to Soon's employer, essentially throwing Smithsonian under the bus in a futile effort to salvage Soon's reputation.
The letter argues that Soon was right to hide his fossil-fuel-funding in the conflict of interest disclosures for his studies, because he was required to do so by his contract, even though he himself did not sign it! Southern Company and the Smithsonian were the signatories, so of course they are to blame and not Soon, who actually took the money and wrote industry-friendly studies without disclosing the financial relationship, thereby breaking journal disclosure rules.
It's surprising the co-authors would attack the Smithsonian, considering that Soon's affiliation with this highly regarded institution is about the only thing giving his name any credibility at all.
In a post at WUWT, Monckton, Legates and Briggs call attention to the letter and request that, "all supporters of Dr. Willie Soon" sign on to the letter. They didn't specify whether Soon's fossil-fuel-funders were who they meant by "supporters."
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