PrintNovember 8, 2007
Black Ops PR in Global Warming Hoax? (updated)
Rush Limbaugh was hoaxed today by a very slick and superficially plausible Global Warming fraud. This resembles the kind of Black PR operation we have just been warning about. The trick is to plant a plausible story that fits a conservative theme, in this case skepticism about anthropogenic GlobWarm.
[Editor's note: the hoaxer has been exposed.]
The hoax looks very professional. A fraudulent scientific journal was created on the web, called the "Journal of Geoclimatic Studies." The journal is fake, the article claiming to disprove the popular Global Warming meme is fake, the Editorial Board is fake, and the authors are faked.
The key to this fraud is its professionalism. All the visible features of the hoax are superficially possible. They do not stand up to deeper examination, but the hoaxers succeeded in fooling Rush for some minutes before he caught it.
The Left is bound to trumpet their momentary success as a proof that the GlobWarm skeptics are wrong.
Two possibilities. One is a bunch of smart grad students at MIT or Caltech. That's the innocent explanation, and we can all have a good laugh.
The other possibility is a very slick dirty trick from the Left.
It could be hard to distinguish between the two, since college students also tend to be Leftist True Believers. We will probably find out more in the coming days. The web allows a lot of back-tracing.
We have previously warned about likely Black PR in the blogosphere. It is possible that others have been planted. We will undoubtedly see other Black PR ops as the election season heats up.
James Lewis blogs at dangeroustimes.wordpress.com/
Gaius at Blue Crab Boulevard was on to the hoax yesterday, and warned about it. Twice. Today he warns that he also thinks this was a professional black op, intended to discredit global warming dissidents.
Good work that not enough people saw.
