Excerpted from Legal Insurrection
Leslie Eastman
Dear Dr. Soon-Shiong:
I am writing to you, scientist-to-scientist, to address a chronic problem with the American press and the Los Angeles Times: The use of weakly credentialed writers to analyze important topics of scientific relevance.
Perhaps if the journalists you hired weren’t climate cultists and racialists who wanted to “get Trump”, one of America’s Great Cities wouldn’t be burning..,potentially from arson started by terrorists or foreign street gangs. A healthy country needs a healthy press.…
— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) January 10, 2025
One great example is the time a social justice extremist, Sammy Roth, was allowed to publish a “scientific” piece on air pollution in the Los Angeles area….linking it to racism.
With respect, you have social justice extremists covering “science”. You need to get people with scientific backgrounds willing to debate the data. Example: LA Times Makes Racist Claims that White Drivers are ‘Polluting the Air’ of ‘People of Color’” https://t.co/OPHkUrRXon
— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) January 17, 2025
Roth was your paper’s “Energy Reporter“.
There is a lot of misinformation to unpack in this gem, so I will start by noting that this is a prime example of ideological capture of the sciences through “science” writers who do not have traditional science-based backgrounds.
A quick review of Roth’s LinkedIn profile shows he graduated from Columbia University with a degree in . . . Sustainable Development.
I majored in Sustainable Development and minored in American Studies, graduating cum laude. My coursework included environmental law, urban studies, energy development, geographic information systems and environmental economics. I reported and edited for the Columbia Daily Spectator, and I worked on water conservation projects for the Columbia Aquanauts, an interdisciplinary water club.
Without a stronger background in questioning assertions and challenging hypotheses, certain elements are not considered. For example, are the patterns of freeway use perhaps more driven by socioeconomic factors rather than race?
The Los Angeles Times, under your ownership, has not permitted reasonable debate nor allowed the publication of information that runs counter to the preferred political narrative on climate and energy.
Good public policy must be based on solid, reliable information. The public has not received full information on climate, what impacts it, subjects involving climatology, energy efficiency, or any other science-related topic that has a significant impact on regulations.
I assert that the ideological capture of the sciences is a contributing factor to the historic fires that have hit the Greater Los Angeles area. I think if you reflect on my hypothesis, you will agree.
I would like to offer you one solution: diversify your staff by including alternative scientific perspectives. For example, you can confer with the CO2 Coalition, who can connect you with serious and experienced people who can do accurate analysis.
You can reach out to people such as geologist and climate expert Dr. Matthew M. Wielicki for guidance.
You can make the same data look very different. pic.twitter.com/n9oTBYVn5q
— Dr. Matthew M. Wielicki (@MatthewWielicki) January 17, 2025
There are scores of other talented scientists mocked or derided for being “tools of fossil fuels” by those who would like to make sure their misinformation is the only information accessible to the public. The louder the complaints, the more effective that researcher tends to be. If you would like a list of other examples, contact me.
One last thought, as we look forward to Inauguration Day 2024. When he was leaving office, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned:
“Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
Dr. Soon-Shiong: Please free your publication from its ideological capture. It’s better for Los Angeles. It’s better for California. It’s better for the nation.
With respect,
Leslie Eastman, MSc., CHMM, SDSRP….wife, mother, and Californian.
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The staff at the LA Times has the same attitude towards “truth” as Pontius Pilate.
Steady on. Pilate didn’t propagate any untruths. He merely washed his hands of responsibility, so sealing the fate of a troublesome peasant.
On some level, the “reporters” know they are being lied to by the activist groups, and lack the willingness to call them on it. Preferring “order”, and sucking up to the activists is what Pilate did.
Many of the mainstream “reporters” have become multimillionaires by repeating the leftist litany of lies.
such as?
Major TV and cable network “reporters” have turned into celebrities and are vastly overpaid. None bothered to challenge the climate “consensus”. Of course now those networks are are on the verge of collapsing.
To get out of the climate arena, start with the Fine People on Both Sides, Injecting Bleach, and the There will be a Bloodbath Hoaxes that were perpetuated about Trump.
Shall we begin with Rathergate?
Climate means current weather nowadays.
And just when I was thinking that DEI was dead and buried along comes the blog author to
say that the real problem is that there isn’t enough diversity in LA, i.e. “I would like to offer you one solution: diversify your staff by including alternative scientific perspectives.”
Izzy shows he doesn’t understand what DEI is actually about..
Very Funny 🙂
It was intended as a “tongue-in-cheek joke, wasn’t it ??
Izack, sorry you do not recognise a polite way of asking for “discrimination”. That is to please discriminate between real sciecne, and DEI “science” that the LA times has so far choosen.
Poor Izaak can’t distinguish between gender diversity and knowledge diversity.
That’s the problem with you alarmists, you have never done any thinking of your own.
The author is talking about diversity of thought, DEI activists have never tolerated diversity of thought. The want people with different colored skin and different plumbing, but they completely reject the notion that people should be permited to think for themselves.
A lot like you.
And do you not think that a good way to get diversity of thought is to include people with a diverse set of backgrounds which includes race, sex and gender?
No – it is not. DEI is one of the most toxic social engineering experiments ever devised. The sooner it is eradicated from all public and private institutions the better. That eradication process across the US federal government & all its agencies will commence today.
Many companies as we have seen a dismantling their DEI programs.
BTW – ‘Gender’ or ‘gender identity’ does not exist. It is a postmodern political theory used to influence public policy. The affirmation of “gender identity”, particularly the most harmful for children, that of ‘trans-gender’ forms part of the broader activist ‘social justice’ agenda, grounded in Marxism.
In humans’ sex is binary and immutable. – male & female
Gender identity is real. It is a personal belief akin to religion, not based on physical realities of course, but real to the person.
Gender identity, when first formulated post WWII was intended to study roles of males and female in society and employment noting masculine and feminine characteristics generally associated with a specific role.
Due to our society’s aversion to discussing sex, gender became conflated with sex, unfortunately.
Protagoras in ca 450 B.C. espoused that reality is personal and is based solely on belief and perceptions. In that context, gender identity is reality for the individual.
Personal beliefs are absolutely real to the person.
A lot of what the trans-gender activists declare as well as the social justice warriors, is pure bunk.
It is the equity part that is wrong. Harris said in an interview that equity means…. we all start from different places but end up at the same place.
Totally disagree with equity. Equality rules.
Only if those people are actually capable of rational, logical thought.
Otherwise the whole thing just sinks into a quicksand morass of ignorance.
MLK “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
That is NOT what DIE is all about. DIE is just legalized discrimination.
Agree in point, but definitions need clarification.
Discrimination like segregation are neutral. You discriminate by wearing socks of the same color. You segregate your underwear from your sweaters.
The words have been weaponized and lost the nuanced meaning.
DEI is all about legalized racial discrimination, aka affirmative action.
Sadly, at the MLK rally, the primary speaker called for all who were listening to boycott any business that eliminated DEI. Sadly, this is contrary to the message MLK meant for all of us.
Yep they all get one vote one value and get to accept the representative democratic result. It aint perfect but it’s a lot more productive and safer way of changing the collective mindset when realizing they were had and effed up last time.
Note: Equity was not part of the offering.
Diversity is good. Embrace diversity and inclusivity comes along for free.
It is the equity part of DEI that is wrong.
The LA Times could provide perspective on cause and effect by warning of the coming mudslides in the LA area due to the denuded hills as a result of the fires. They will be devastating. They would buy a clue for the public and politicians that when the fires are out, a new problem will arise. Forewarned is fore armed.
Good luck. This plus $5 isn’t likely to get you anything at Starbucks.
Very nice.
“weakly credentialed writers”
🙂
Think of the vast cost to clean up the mess in LA. For a trivial percent of that- they could have done intense landscape management which would have greatly reduced the potential damage from fires.
Soon is just doing his Chinese masters bidding ?
“Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”
That quote from Eisenhower is a gem, a product of insightful and thoughtful leadership from a time when common sense was more common.
It was obvious Biden’s farewell (to some) address was patterned after Eisenhower’s.
Eisenhower’s had meat.
Brandon’s was a word salad.
Can I get fries with that? I have the $50.
I don’t have the reference anymore, but he made a statement not too long ago that he was going to do exactly this. Hopefully this letter will serve as encouragement to continue to pursue that.
Sammy Roth and the entire LA Times staff are oblivious to the facts that:
1. Electricity came AFTER Crude oil, as all the components to generate electricity are made with oil derivatives manufactured from oil.
2. None of the 6 ways to generate ELECTRICITY (hydro, nuclear, coal, natural gas, wind, and solar) can exist without crude oil !
3. Getting rid of crude oil would eliminate electricity!