It’s a “jump the shark” moment for Mann.
As if taking a cue from yesterday’s essay The Merchants of Smear in deciding “enough is enough”, Herald Sun Journalist Andrew Bolt has decided to stand up to him for defamation. He did so in a most professional but firm way. I repeat what he writes in:
========================================================
Warning to Michael Mann: apologise for your lie or risk facing from me what you’ve done to Steyn
Open and shut case. Michael Mann is a liar:
Normally I do not sue, but this seems to me a special case.
Mann, the climate alarmist who gave the world his dodgy ”hockey stick”, is now suing sceptic Mark Steyn for mocking him and his lawyers have produced deceptive legal documents in his defence.
Mann has published an outright lie that defames me, and should face the same punishment he wishes to mete out on Steyn for mere mockery.
I do not lie and Murdoch does not pay me to do so. Nor has Mann singled out a single “lie” I’m alleged to have committed.
In fact, Mann is so reckless with the facts that his tweet links to an obvious parody Twitter account run by one of my critics, clearly believing that it’s actually mine.
Advice, please?
UPDATE
I have sent Mann the following email:
Dr Mann:I note your publication of the following defamatory tweet:
You have published an outright lie that defames me.
I do not lie and am not paid by Rupert Murdoch to lie. You have not identified in your tweet a single example of an alleged lie, which suggests you simply made up this defamatory claim.
Indeed, you were so reckless with the facts that your tweet links to an obvious parody Twitter account run by one of my critics which you have clearly believed is mine.
Your other link is to the website of a warmist journalist who for years was a Murdoch columnist, too, writing on climate change. Was he, too, paid by “villainous” Rupert Murdoch to “lie to public”?
I’ve since learned that you last year retweeted another defamatory comment: “No other media organisation in any other civilised nation would employ #AndrewBolt as a journalist”.
As it turns out, that, too, is incorrect. I am not only employed by News Corp but by Australia’s Network 10 and Macquarie Radio Network, where I host a weekly television show and co-host a daily radio show respectively. I have also appeared as a commentator on other media outlets, including the state-owned Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Al Jazeera, the BBC and Canadian radio stations. I am very confident I would be able to find work as a journalist in another “civilised nation”.
I note this because repeated defamations under Australia’s law is evidence of malice – and your history of defaming me shows a complete disregard for the facts.
It is appalling that you could be so reckless, so spiteful, so destructive and so ill-informed. I have long doubted the rigor and the conclusions of your work as a climate scientist and often deplored the way you conduct debate, but even I had never before today considered publically calling you a liar.
I demand you delete your tweet and issue a public apology on the same Twitter account within 24 hours. Failure to do so will not only cast doubt on your commitment to truth in debates on global warming, but expose you to legal action.
UPDATE
Mann gives a very grudging “not necessarily” apology for his brazen lie (and follows it up elsewhere with a string of insults):
Too late. His mask has slipped. What else has he repeated – whether “science” or personal calumnies – that was false and motivated by spite or self-protection?
Steve McIntyre suggests one more.
UPDATE
Now, how to get Mann to apologise for his “hockey stick” as well?
UPDATE
To help Mark Steyn meet the legal bills in his own legal battle with Mann, please go here and go to the final link.
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I’ve lost count how many lawsuits is Mann involved with right now?
I suspect he has had a word with his lawyers. They can’t be optimistic if he gets into new fights every other week.
“Falsehoods” are not “lies”? Only if the falsehood is truly believed and justifably so.
Very post-modern.
I have to wonder how often Dr. Mann gets phone calls from his lawyers saying “Stop attacking people on Twitter! You are blowing your case!”.
Amazing how much of a hypocrite Mr Mann is. He seems more than happy than to call people henchman, etc, but the moment someone suggests he is anything, he throws his toys.
Still sue his ass. Make him defend his actions everywhere on this planet!
This is just the start of various legal battles that will terminate AGW over the coming 2 years me thinks. Only legal threats will stop these people as you can see from this latest tussle. Mann is probably cooked. Steyn will destroy him on appeal. Penn University should be thinking real hard about this person in their institution
Mann, beware…. You are abusing your good luck.
The fall of Mann might become one of the most amazing events of the 21th century.
Even though we are nowhere near such event, Mann has crossed the line of no return. He could have become a low-profile guy. He didn’t, and now he will face the consequences.
It would be nice if more people (such as yourself, Anthony, Dr. Curry, etc) started sending him similar emails requesting apologies and threatening legal action if they do not come, and did the same with each new attack he attempted
He would have to flood his Twitter account with these half-hearted apologies
Michael Mann cannot stop himself as he has the same behaviour as a spoilt child. He does not think of the consequences when he lashes out, just like a child hitting another child for daring to say something he does not like. After all Mann has little to be proud of: a pretend Nobel Prize; a dubious hockey stick; and an embarrassing “Hide the Decline”. He hasn’t made any scientific acheivements but as Judith Curry once said he was once one of the “Masters of the Universe”. Now the emptiness of his achievements and the long fall to reality produces the puerile revenge attacks.
No calls from lawyers will ever change him.
I’ve been predicting that Mann will fold like a cheap suit (get it?) under the pressure of Steyn’s countersuit which was a brave and brilliant stroke.
This latest personal humiliation for MAnn will only increase the pressure on him to withdraw, including from I imagine, some of his fellow climateers who must see great damage to The Cause flowing from all things Mannian….and his lawyers given what’s turned out to be the fraudulent nature of those legal documents. I’m sure his lawyers by now are amazed and repelled by what they’re seeing from their prize client…
OTOH, they’re lawyers racking up billable hours. Must be quite the internal struggle for them…the dueling impulses between greed and fear of humiliation in the courtroom.. (Though it will never get that far).
[snip 1. Its factually incorrect. 2. It’s from the Slayers – nuff said – Anthony]
the best PR move for Mann at this point is to say he is a passionate hot head that got carried away by his beliefs, blah blah, and settle that Steyn case with a non disclosure.
I looked at his Twitter page you link to…. seems like many tweets about Andrew Bolt are there.
Maybe this is just the beginning.
I would not accept those “apologies”, they are not adequate and don’t refute the actual initial tweets.
I can just imagine how exasperated his lawyers are – I’m sure they have some very good advice for him – “Next time you think you got something to say – DON’T!!!!”
I admit to starting my day with a chuckle due to this. Thanks for the pick-me-up.
Okay, maybe it was the Diet Coke.
Question to Dr Mann;
Can you please explain the distinction between “promoting a falsehood” about someone and a “lie”? How is one not necessarily the same as the other?
My bet is that when the emails Dr. Mann has fought so hard to hide are finally leaked out – and they will be= what we see revealed will make climategate look tame. Mann is a real piece of work.
It’s a shame that Andrew Bolt has been slimed but his riposte seems perfect to me. It will be interesting to see if Mark Steyn can bring to the court’s attention in his case with Mann, this evidence of malicious falsehoods. Even if not, the Net will not forget. The best part is that these are self-inflicted wounds; and cannot be healed.
Proverbs 26:3-5 NIV
Anybody who thinks Mann is scared of lawsuits is seriously miscalculating.
I am of the opinion that Mann is probably suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder. If I am correct, Mann is likely to enjoy suing people and the thrill of fighting people in court because the court system provides him a forum to attack people that gives him great psychic satisfaction. Prior to trial, there is a phase where the parties make initial representations regarding the dispute. The parties are not immediately called to task for any misrepresentations. They are given wide latitude in the things they can claim, and unless one has been adjudged a vexatious litigant by the courts, the court will take each claim seriously.
Since the trial – the put up of shut up time – is often months or even a year away, a narcissist can get months of satisfaction out of making the allegations. The more delusional ones will enjoy the actual trial phase as well, convinced of the rightness of their cause, even as everyone around them recognizes that they are on a doomed course. Often this latter group will then resolve the conflict between their expectation of victory and their loss by deciding that the judge is part of the conspiracy against them and the cycle begins anew.
The case of Mann’s suit against Ball fits the profile. He initiated the suit to great publicity, but is dragging his feet on discovery. This is in my mind a huge tell that Mann is not seeking to be made whole by quickly resolve the issue, but is instead getting what he wants from the operation of the process itself.
Stop it, stop it, stop it. At this rate I’m going to feel sorry for Penn State alums and parents.
Sometimes it seems like Mann spends half his day suing people for defaming him, and then the other half of his day defaming others on twitter.
Judith Curry nailed this one.
(oops meant to quote her. ~blush~)
Judith Curry nailed this one.
I’m sorry, I was wrong to call you a big fat liar. What I meant to say what that you were a large, overweight purveyor of falsehoods. We’re good now, right? /sarc