Michael “Hockey Stick” Mann has filed a lawsuit against writer Mark Steyn and National Review alleging they defamed him in a column Steyn wrote in July called “Football and Hockey” which was about all the neat ways Penn State has gotten itself worldwide notice over the last few years.
Mann is a professor at PSU and was one of the major players in the global warming scandal of November 2009 in which emails were leaked from University of East Anglia’s Hadley Climatic Research Centre in the United Kingdom that showed leading climate researchers playing tricks with data and conspiring to stifle dissenters regarding the global warming catastrophe story.
Mann is the creator of infamous “hockey stick” graph which was widely claimed to have proved that earth temperatures were drastically increasing. It was learned he left out data points in creating it. A graph that takes into account the missing data is a lot less scary.
Steyn quoted someone else saying that “Mann could be said to be the Jerry Sandusky of climate science except that instead of molesting children, he has molested and tortured data in in the service of politicized science that could have dire economic consequences for the nation and planet.”
Steyn wondered “If an institution is prepared to cover up systemic statutory rape of minors, what won’t it cover up? Whether or not he’s ‘the Jerry Sandusky of climate change’, he remains the Michael Mann of climate change, in part because his ‘investigation’ by a deeply corrupt administration was a joke.
We actually said something similar way back.
Anyway, Steyn and National Review are fighting the suit. Their lawyer John B. Williams of Cozen O’Connor of Washington D.C. notes that his clients will be seeking access to materials Mann successfully fought to protect in other proceedings.
It should be interesting.
The defense is not free and NR is asking for help with it. Information on how to donate can be found here. We are going to send them $10.
And Penn State? Sell the land for office space. It can’t be taken seriously as an institution of higher learning.