With each passing day, Dr. Mann’s Q score becomes stranger and stranger. Mark Steyn (whom Dr. Mann is suing for libel) observes an emergent phenomenon – Mann’s accidental emergence into the public stage in a post facto sort of way.
===========================
Steyn writes:
National Review and I have a court date next month for Big Climate honcho Michael Mann’s defamation suit against us for hooting at his hockey stick. I gather that, in America, the crucial point of law is that it’s very difficult to defame a public figure, as Jerry Falwell and many others have discovered. So I was interested to note this recent verbal tic from Dr. Mann. From the May 8th Daily Press of Newport News, Virginia:
“I’ll often characterize myself as a reluctant and accidental public figure,” he said.
He’s right! I had no idea how often he does characterize himself as a reluctant and accidental public figure. Here he is on May 1st at the Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Association:
Mann called himself “a reluctant and accidental public figure in the debate over climate change.”
============================================================
Here’s more context:
The Daily Press reports:
More than a year removed from that controversy and with a book on climate change now under his belt, Mann reflected on the experience in an interview before his speaking engagements.
“I’ll often characterize myself as a reluctant and accidental public figure,” he said. “I found myself at the center of this debate because of the efforts of some to discredit my science, and I had to make a decision. What am I going to do with that?”
You can read the entire Steyn essay here, and note just how many times that phrase is being used by Dr. Mann. Clearly, an emergent phenomenon.
In other news, Junkscience.com is running a series of Dr. Mann’s interviews with the press, to illustrate just what a liar shrinking violet he is about his public persona, trying to manipulate the outcome of his defamation lawsuit by pretending to be something that he is not.
Read the whole series here
UPDATE: Commenter “copner” points out Mann’s Facebook page has already made the decision for Dr. Mann. He can stop backpedaling now:
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
This may be mincing words, but Mann may legitimately claim to be a reluctant public figure. Mann was always interested in math, computing, physicas, and mathematical models. In grad school he came upon the opportunity to work with Barry Saltzmann, who was already one of the many academics who believed in the manmade global warming hypothesis.
Exploring climate changes with paelo data and modeling was in line with his interests. He, like many other grad students, took one of the regular mettings with a more senior academic, and had his line of research go along with that more senior person. This is perfectly normal and common, and he might have been a fool to not take up the opportunity to model future climate based on using existing paleo data to retro-model past climate.
In the 1990s, global warming was already certainly 20 years old as a common environmental fear. A chance to explore that with data would be inherently attractive.
At this pt in the Mann history, there is no reason to suspect that he pursued the opportunity to Saltzmann for public fame or to be a public environmental figure, like Gore has done or Bill Nye has done.
Somehow, he springboarded from his 1996 dissertation, the hockey stick analyisis, later turned into MBH1998, to be a lead author of the 2001 third IPCC report- 2001 was the publication date, so he got involved in a very rapid manner relative to his level of experience – a recent grad – sure, with a few great pubs, but a recent grad.
I have never seen an account of how this recently minted doctor jumped to such a prominent role in a high-profile report. I don’t know these circles, but it is very unlikely that the jump happened out of frank ambition. It is almost sure that he was offered a great opportunity, and he took it.
IPCC3 was one leading event kicking off the hockey stick phenomenon. Mann does two things from that point that show his character.
He did not fully address MM2003. He gave distraction by his corrigendum to MBH98.
He assumed a high public profile when identified as the creator of the well-noted IPCC3 Hockey Stick figure.
So, he did not develop a career as a public fame-seeker, but when the opportunity presented itself, he took the opportunity. Reluctantly? Possibly at first. I don’t know how his early media-personality career developed.
Snotrocket says:
May 8, 2013 at 12:18 pm
Rocky Road is right, this by ‘The Dane’ (alas poor Uncle Monty) is all the proof needed.
For ’tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petard: and ‘t shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon: O, ’tis most sweet,
Hamlet Act iii Scene 4 Line 206
A petard is a old French word for a fart.
I’m a reluctant and accidental public figure too…so much so that nobody actually knows (or cares) who I am. 🙂
He also reluctantly accepted the Nobel prize. He is a very humble Mann.
Fairy tale science deserved a fairy tale reply….which is why….
“Hockey Stickery Doc” is posted in Canada Free Press archive….
[@ur momisugly Snotrocket…that dungeon in Warwick perchance…fitting place for a warmist]
Mann “[h]oist with his own petar’ “(Hamlet III,4, 2612) is more fun when petard’s etymology is known; from Latin – pditum, neuter past participle of pdere, to break wind – and French – peter, to break wind, from pet, a breaking of wind.
In the tiny possibility that someone besides me reads my 5/8/13 @ur momisugly 1159 post, an amplification re:
“[Comment: Thus, Plaintiff Mann, … is desperately trying to portray himself as a private individual by arguing the NOVEL (not, as far as I know, part of U.S. Const. jurisprudence) idea that intent is required to be a “public figure” … intent of the figure is irrelevant. JM].”
AMPLIFICATION re: “intent:”
That is to say, the PER SE intent-to-be-a-public-figure, as in: “I am saying this thing or doing this thing mainly for the purpose of simply making myself into a public figure.”
I’m pretty sure that Michael E. Mann believes that he’s a public figure: Because he setup (or is involved in running and regularly posts to) a facebook for “Michael E. Mann – Public Figure” as evidenced by this screenshot: http://imgur.com/y2BOyuB
If you are a member of Facebook, type Michael E. Mann in the FB search box, if you too wish to enjoy Michael E. Mann Public Figure’s antics!
Petard \Pe*tard”\, n. [F. p[‘e]tard, fr. p[‘e]ter to break wind,
to crack, to explode, L. pedere, peditum.] (Mil.)
A case containing powder to be exploded, esp. a conical or
cylindrical case of metal filled with powder and attached to
a plank, to be exploded against and break down gates,
barricades, drawbridges, etc. It has been superseded.
[1913 Webster] Petardeer
NOUN (1)
1. an explosive device used to break down a gate or wall;
@thelastdemocrat
The alternate thesis is that suitable bias with some basic qualifications presented the opportunity to take the leap ahead and upward career wise, right? Let’s at least cover the range of possibilities of what really happened. That of course leads back to the selection process and those above making the offer. Is that angle and potential source of bias also not reasonable to consider?
An efficient measure of “Public Figure” is the groupie quotient. How many groupies does Mann draw? OK, not easy to get that data, but if you draw the groupies, then you’re a public figure.
Reluctant! Does not the Good Mann offer himself as a public speaker, retaining the services of an agent, Ms Jodi Solomon, to promote him? His fee is reported to run a high as $10,000. “What a piece of work is Mann, how noble of reason…” with apologies to WS.
Mann the publicity seeking whore claims to be a shy, private figure !
Now that is funny .
What are the odd’s that it never goes to court and Mann drops it ,only to claim martyrdom to his followers ?
Sounds like Mann is getting worried.
15 tweets in the past 24 hrs. Quite a lot for a ‘reluctant’ public figure.
Admitting you are a public figure (accidental or not) is not a good way to prove you aren’t a public figure.
Hoist by ones own petard……to be lifted up (get the giggles) at ones own explosive fundamental orifice (fart).
Common everyday experience for some.
Nice work, Copner (@ur momisugly 1:46PM)!
GREAT post of Mann’s Facebook page, An –th–y. LOL.
Didn’t Mann make himself a public figure by co-founding RC and then moderating and commenting there (as Mike)? Wasn’t its purpose to communicate to the public?
At the same time as Mann Hayhoe (*) plays the victim card as well; and Gleick did a few days ago as well when replying to Anthony. They are all trained by the same organisation I suspect; probably Fenton Communications.
(*) http://suyts.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/lol-a-clear-admission-of-climate-anti-science-from-hayhoe/
Perhaps in this topsey-turvey world in which we live, the lawsuit and the Unhappiness of Mann is just posturing for profit: no such thing as bad publicity.
If Mann drops the lawsuit, I hope there is some financial penalty for all the grief ….
Unless both sides find this controversy to have been profitable ….
No longer do I think I know what is going on. Thanks Al, Jim, Mike, Phil, David and Bill-Joe.
Not public?
What Mann writes in the Climategate e-mails and the failure of investigations to find and see this is really amazing!
It’s not only the Team climate scientist but also the System?
Changing the system from within to make the World better?
?
Was Manfred Mann singing about little Michael? You know, Blinded by the light…
Some very touching and naive faith in the US court system is being expressed here. Obviously most of you have never had anything to do with US courts.