Update on Mar 18, 2014 by
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill
The Columbia Journalism Review takes a look at the ongoing attempts to get hold of Michael Mann's emails and revels in the delicious irony of leftie journalists finding themselves filing an amicus brief that will help the evil right-wing fossil-fuel-funded denier conspirators in their nefarious aims.
Organized by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, 17 news organizations, including National Public Radio, Dow Jones, and The Washington Post, submitted an amicus brief in November, supporting the group’s rights to Mann’s emails.
“By defining an exemption to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (‘VFOIA’) as broadly as the lower court has done, this Court Would be, in effect, removing almost all public documents from the ambit of the records law,” reads the brief. By exempting Mann’s emails from public release, the group argues, the court is setting what journalists see as a dangerous precedent—making it much more difficult to gain access to public records.
Even more amusing are the contortions of the Washington Post as it tries to simultaneously demand that Mann's correspondence be kept secret while supporting the amicus brief.
It's all very interesting stuff, marred only by the article's author - one Alexis Sobell Fitts - solemnly issuing one of those fact-free Climategate factoids:
The quotes had been cherry-picked and were taken out of context.
Oh yes, and her promotion of the article using the d-word; ugly stuff for what used to be a respectable publication. But like the alleged cherry picking of Climategate quotes, I don't suppose the mere absence of any actual evidence to support such statements is going to bother her.
Bishop Hill