Even at the height of the tobacco industries efforts to cast doubt on the scientific findings concerning tobacco, they did not try to denigrate the scientists involved in the research. Today, with trillions of dollars at stake, there is a concerted effort to cast all scientists as the enemy, as liars trying to pervert the system.
While the hacked e-mails concern only a few scientists, the coverage is as if all scientists are involved in a vast conspiracy. Even though no one has yet to show where there is any wrongdoing by the scientists involved in the hacked e-mails.
This assasination of character of a whole class of people is beginning to look like the McCarthy Era bullshit all over again.
It is time for the scientific community to start punching back hard.
The interesting thing is that you see it from one side only, while refusing to recognize that there are 2 sides to every coin.
No, the tobacco industry did not try to denigrate the scientists who were looking at the impacts of tobacco and publishing studies showing it to be dangerous. Why? Because the tobacco industry was always seen as the "bad guys" and needed to gain some degree of public sympathy, and character assassination is generally not a good way to do that.
On the other hand, the anti tobacco lobby could and did denigrate the findings of scientists who published research showing that certain health concerns might be over stated. Why? Because the anti tobacco lobby were always painted as the "good guys", and it was seen to be perfectly acceptable to kick the tobacco companies and anyone who supported them.
Any science that was funded by the tobacco companies was loudly ignored by the general scientific community, the press and policy makers. However, any science that was funded by the anti tobacco lobby or by companies like GSK (makers of absurdly expensive and vastly profitable Niquitin) was instantly picked up by the media and believed by everyone else.
So, why believe one group of scientists whose funding comes from a source with an agenda and not another group of scientists whose funding comes from a source with an agenda? Easy.
1. It is politically correct to kick the tobacco lobby. It is not politically correct to kick the anti tobacco lobby. So long as you show support for the group that is "saving us from ourselves" you can get away with pretty much anything.
2. One can take a strong anti tobacco stance with little understanding of the science (and tobacco science is hugely complex). Taking a pro tobacco stance means that you are going to face a barrage of criticism, so your better understand the science pretty damn well.
3. Once a critical tipping point has been reached, with public opinion predisposed to believe one view or another, we are left with the dangerous scenario that all one side has to do in order to be believed is shout their findings as loudly as possible, while muzzling those whose findings are different. In this scenario, the press (whose job was once to find stories, interrogate the proponents and present the facts in a clear and unbiased manner), are now so toothless and lazy that they will happily take a press release from the politically correct side and apply only a veneer of due diligence before publishing much of it word for word, while almost completely ignoring the rebuttals from the politically incorrect side of the argument.
Now, take that entire scenario and apply it to the climate debate. What's the difference?
Nothing.
And for you, Old Rocks, to say that the scientific community needs to start punching hard is fucking bullshit. The scientific community has been punching hard for years. The only change is that, all of a sudden, they are having to do it in self defense rather than in attack. If they don't like being called liars and manipulators then perhaps they would do well to remember that what goes around comes around.
The scientific community does not need to start punching. There has been quite sufficient of that already. The scientific community needs to start talking openly, with no agenda. It needs to build consensus, not just kill the opposition. McCarthyism refers to ANY witch-hunt, Rocks, not just to one viewpoint or another.