Friday, February 17, 2012

Heartlandgate: Update

Finally, the story of The Heartland Institute's attempt to infiltrate the American school system and teach kids to deny science has reached Canadian news outlets

Meanwhile, two days into scandal, CEO Joe Bast and the other players at HI have had time to write any number  of blog posts, and a fund-raising letter but still...STILL!...haven't had time to go through the documents and determine, as per their repeated claims, that they have been altered or are otherwise inauthentic.

Meanwhile, evidence continues to mount that they are in fact the real deal.  For instance this bit from the Heartland budget docs:

Ben Boychuck, managing editor of School Reform News, resigned mid-year and was replaced by Joy Pullmann. Ben, who lives and works in California, was recruited by the Manhattan Institute to become their California editor.

...has been confirmed on Slashdot:

Regarding authenticity, I can confirm the information relating to Ben Boychuk in the budget document. He did indeed leave Heartland for Manhattan Institute. I had dinner with the guy once, but he de-friended me on FB because I kept challenging the crazy links he would post.

In addition, there has been an effort launched to contact the companies on Heartland's donor list and ask them politely why they would wish to fund such a group.  Remember: consumer boycotts can work.

6 comments:

double nickel said...

I don't know what's more disheartening...the article, or the lack of response to it.

Anonymous said...

DeSmogBlog is going to get roasted & toasted.

"I spoke with Heartland’s Director of Communications, Jim Lakely, today. Lakely informed me that the supposed “confidential memo” laying out the “Heartland Climate Strategy” was created out of whole cloth – it was not created by anyone at The Heartland Institute, or anyone associated with them. It specifically cites the Koch brothers, for example, as a way to try to discredit the agenda of the Institute.

“When we find out who did this – and we will find out – they will absolutely need a lawyer,” Lakely said. “This act of deception and fraud exposes, again, the hatred those on the left have for anyone with a different point of view. They aren’t interested in open debate, which Heartland has always welcomed. They want to destroy their opponents – and will steal and lie to achieve that end with not the slightest moral pang.

“But it’s not going to work – not on The Heartland Institute,” Lakely said. “We’ve just begun to fight back. And those who committed and perpetuated this malicious act are going to soon realize they’ve make a very big mistake.”"

Couldn't happen to a scummier bunch of morons.

bigcitylib said...

Everyone knows what the HI story is, Fred. None of the newspapers seems to be buying it.

Holly Stick said...

It's handy that the American Association for the Advancement of Science is meeting in Vancouver and getting some media coverage. So they are getting some of this stuf into the media.

Plus Michael Man's recent publicity: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=hit-them-with-the-hockey

Hey Fred, you sound as outraged as a hypothetical fornicator who just had his divorce proceedings tweeted might, after he presumed to make hypocritical moral judgments about his opponents.

Holly Stick said...

BBC on Canadian scientists being muzzled: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16861468

Holly Stick said...

Lots more articles today about Canadian scientists being muzzled; see:

https://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23UnmuzzleScience