Ed Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation, penned a great run-down of Fakegate in today’s Washington Times. Mr. Feulner wrote: “Bravo to Heartland for standing up to the bullies.” We thank him for that, and the entire op-ed in the Times. Here’s the lead:
What could be more American than encouraging a robust debate on one of the most controversial issues of the day? The answer – for some on the left, anyway – is: Lie about your opponents, and make a pathetic effort to discredit them.
That, at least, is what an activist named Peter Gleick decided to do in a backward attempt to promote his view that global warming is unquestionably and primarily a man-made phenomenon – one that will cause calamitous changes in the environment.
On Feb. 14, Mr. Gleick sent several documents he had stolen from the Heartland Institute to more than two-dozen fellow activists. He threw in a fake memo for good measure – one that purportedly showed the institute trying to spread misinformation about climate change. This was followed by the gasps of horror from left-leaning pundits.
Why Heartland? Because this free-market nonprofit group has been at the forefront of the climate-change debate. They’ve published books, articles and reports, held conferences and debunked the hysterical claims of the radical environmental movement. Their efforts have earned them the scorn of liberal activists who would rather smear their opponents than debate them.
Consider the title of one of Heartland’s most prominent environmental reports: “Roosters of the Apocalypse: How the Junk Science of Global Warming Nearly Bankrupted the Western World.” No wonder they found themselves in Mr. Gleick’s cross hairs. As the head of the left-leaning Pacific Institute, he apparently couldn’t let any credible challenge go unsabotaged.
Read the rest here.