Dec/09
09:05 10
Big boy bloggers must be big enough to admit when they get it wrong
On Sunday evening Iain Dale posted some extremely sloppy climate change denial ‘science’ submitted by one of his readers. Scrapbook won’t bore you with the details, but suffice it to say that the whole effort was completely and utterly flattened by Unity (@Unity_MoT) at Liberal Conspiracy and also by the Freethinking Economist. When it eventually came, the update Dale made to his original post left a lot to be desired:
I posted this because I thought it was interesting. It was not my work, as I made clear in the opening line. I then at the end encouraged readers to test the data themselves. And yet Will Straw, for it is he, seems to think I have something to apologise for.
With sleight of hand like this Dale will not be joining the Magician’s Circle any time soon. Will Straw didn’t ask for him to apologise but to accept that the basis for the original post was unsound – just as Straw’s Left Foot Forward did with some speed when they recently misstepped. He goes on:
I regard the internet as a place for debate – where you can throw something out there and let people debate the rights and wrongs.
No sooner had the Liberal Conspiracy piece been published than the left/liberal twitterati started to probe Dale for a response. Scrapbook’s request for him to engage rather than evade the issues elicited the tweet below. Does this sound to you like someone who is interested in a debate?
On the ropes and seemingly incapable of a dignified concession and face-saving refocus on the broader issues, Dale adopts the tactic of using chaff to deflect from the debate by reverse-smearing his opponents:
Most people on the left on Twitter haven’t really bothered engaging in an argument – all they have done is hurl insults. That’s fine. I expect it from them. They’re the internet equivalent of pond life.
You can bore yourself trawling Twitter Search for evidence of this mass abuse but you won’t find it. With the exception of this rebuke from Sunny Hundal (“Poor @iaindale is sulking now that climate denialism tripe posted on his blog is exposed as shite”) there isn’t anything which would offend even Stephen Fry.
Iain Dale is a big boy blogger.
But is he big enough to admit the basis of his post was wrong?
See also: Left Foot Forward
10:03am on December 22nd, 2009
Phew. I thought that this article might have been referring to me, when I posted in a comment to a thread ‘the Daley Dozen’ that there had been a news item on Russia Today about the Russian data not being included. This link was given to me by a friend, and was a You Tube video, and was innocently in response to a remark by a fellow reader that they should hold the next conference in Siberia and see if they believe in global warming them! No, I like Iain Dale’s thread because it does allow banter like this, and to my knowledge Iain Dale does not indorse all of his viewers’ opinions rather than facts. Best wishes for your excellent website though and seasons greetings.
10:32am on December 22nd, 2009
This is Iain Dale we’re talking about so it’s *you* that is wrong, blinded by your left wing bias.
11:40am on December 22nd, 2009
I usually enjoy reading Iain’s blog even when I disagree with him. But what riled me here (other than more climate change denialism) is that he was happy to claim, without foundation, that Labour tweeters are “pond life” that were “hurling insults” at him when he’s been party to such campaigns by the right – even if he merely re-tweets them.
And thanks for the kind words, Shibley. Happy Christmas!
1:08pm on December 22nd, 2009
Folks, I think it’s time to face facts here. Copenhagen was a complete flop and the Climate Change/world government movement is dead. So you can critisize this Iain Dale guy whoever he is, but the reality is climate deniers like Iain Dale and his ilk have won. So go home, regroup and start again with a whole new fabricated left wing global threat of some kind. I’m sure the BBC will sell it like they did AGW.