It's not too often when you see reporters openly slamming their colleagues in a newspaper - especially the Washington Post.
Washington Post reporters Juliet Eilperin and Mary Beth Sheridan have an article on the alarming decline of Arctic sea ice. In a stunningly unusual move, the article includes this statement:
"The new evidence--including satellite data showing that the average multiyear wintertime sea ice cover in the Arctic in 2005 and 2006 was nine feet thick, a significant decline from the 1980s--contradicts data cited in widely circulated reports by Washington Post columnist George F. Will that sea ice in the Arctic has not significantly declined since 1979."
I've been tracking WaPo columnist George Will and the misinformed opinion pieces he has been putting out lately. Never did I expect to see WaPo journalists to go after Will so blatantly. It's refreshing to see.
Earlier today a Washington Post blogger chastised Will for lying repeatedly in his columns.
Now it's come to my attention that multiple columnists and other colleagues from Will's own paper have come forward to slam Will for his outrageous use of global warming denier arguments in WaPo columns. See Chris Mooney's blog "The Washington Post vs. George Will?" and David Robert's coverage over at Grist.
It's quite extraordinary for employees of the same news organization to openly chastise each other, by name, in their own paper. And it's just the treatment that George Will deserves.
Kudos to those reporters who had the backbone to stand up and say something about Will's lies. Let's hope the WaPo editors are listening and that George Will finally gets reined in before he spreads around any more skeptic trash in his columns.
Special kudos to Dave Roberts at Grist and his keen eye for finding the Eilperin quote.