{"id":10173,"date":"2020-05-12T18:01:57","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T01:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/?p=10173"},"modified":"2022-06-30T11:46:36","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T18:46:36","slug":"scientist-falsely-accused","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/?p=10173","title":{"rendered":"Scientist Falsely Accused"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Do an internet search for nothing simpler than the name &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?&amp;q=%22Willie+Soon%22\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Willie Soon<\/a>,&#8221; or the variant of &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?&amp;q=%22Wei-hock+Soon%22\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wei-hock Soon<\/a>,&#8221; and uncountable numbers of results pop up repeating some form of the accusation or insinuation that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heartland.org\/about-us\/who-we-are\/willie-soon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysicist Dr Soon<\/a> was paid industry-sourced money in exchange for falsehoods designed to undercut the certainty of catastrophic man-caused global warming. The following video by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.org\/aboutus\/person_detail.asp?id=3936\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dr Terry Gannon<\/a> addresses aspects of Dr Soon&#8217;s actual funding, which the spectrum of accusers out there <strong><em>never<\/em><\/strong> tell their audiences about, and it mentions a name of one of the most prominent accusers that loyal readers of GelbspanFiles will readily recognize, Kert Davies:<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Scientist Falsely Accused\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DgMZUZJyXXs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>We first see Davies at the 1:45 point as a guest on the Democracy Now program \u2026<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/DN-guest-Davies.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-10170 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/DN-guest-Davies-300x195.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"347\" height=\"230\" \/><\/a>&#8230;. with a few more details spoken about him after the three minute point, and again in a bit more depth a minute later. However, much like any other aspect of the &#8216;crooked skeptic climate scientists&#8217; accusation, I&#8217;m compelled to say, &#8220;<em>but wait, there&#8217;s more<\/em> \u2026..&#8221;<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Dr Gannon was of course constrained by time limits in this video. At the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DgMZUZJyXXs&amp;t=90\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">1:30 point<\/a>, he speaks of how the corruption accusation outbreak against Dr Soon in 2015 is illustrated by a &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/02\/22\/us\/ties-to-corporate-cash-for-climate-change-researcher-Wei-Hock-Soon.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Deeper Ties to Corporate Cash for Doubtful Climate Researcher<\/a>&#8221; <em>New York Times<\/em> article, and then he notes at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DgMZUZJyXXs&amp;t=185\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">3:10 point<\/a> how the efforts behind the <em>NYT<\/em> article were led by Kert Davies.<\/p>\n<p>As I detailed in my <a href=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/?p=2600\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 25, 2015 GelbspanFiles blog post<\/a> (subsequently <a href=\"https:\/\/wattsupwiththat.com\/2015\/02\/26\/the-origin-of-climate-smear\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reproduced at WUWT<\/a>), there&#8217;s a little more to the story. The prominent accusation eruption against Dr Soon in February 2015 wasn&#8217;t just confined to the <em>NYT<\/em>, it was a trio of hit pieces from unrelated reporters across the span of three consecutive days, February 21, 22 and 23, which included two other very prominent newspapers, <strong><em>none of which<\/em><\/strong> bothered to note a particular arguably important &#8216;conflict of interest&#8217; concerning <a href=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Davies-trio-hits.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Davies&#8217; two years-prior work history<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I wasn&#8217;t giving it thought at the time, but in reference to my latest set of blog posts under the &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/?cat=155\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">What $5 mill might buy<\/a>&#8221; category, that particular 2015 three-day event might fall under the umbrella question of &#8220;does nearly $5 million buy the kind of a high level news media coverage which is practically guaranteed to generate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=%22Willie+Soon%22&amp;tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A2%2F21%2F2015%2Ccd_max%3A2%2F28%2F2015\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">exponentially wider negative coverage<\/a> within <a href=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/7-Feb-days-2015.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">just <strong><em>7 days<\/em><\/strong><\/a>?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dr Gannon isn&#8217;t exaggerating when he states at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DgMZUZJyXXs&amp;t=249\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">4:12 point<\/a> that the accusation continues right up to the present time. A variant of the insinuation about fossil fuel industry corruption of Dr Soon is seen <a href=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Honolulu-hits-Soon.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in paragraph 108<\/a> of the current <em>City and County of Honolulu v. Sunoco LP et al.<\/em> global warming lawsuit filed on March 9th. The <em>Honolulu<\/em> lawsuit, much like its <a href=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Sher-Edling-2-not-Honolulu.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">nine<\/a> other <a href=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/?p=9896\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">boilerplate versions<\/a>, brings up the topic of &#8216;conflict of interest&#8217; in <a href=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/HarvSmiths-Soon-discl.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">its footnote citation<\/a> about Dr Soon in a rather ironic fashion, considering the way the <a href=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/CIC-Davies-ClimFiles.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kert Davies&#8217; own Climate Investigations Center \/ Climate Files<\/a> arguably has <a href=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Sher-Edlings-Chicken.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">an undisclosed &#8216;conflict of interest&#8217;<\/a> with that law firm.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding CIC&#8217;s highly questionable nonprofit status that Dr Gannon speaks of at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DgMZUZJyXXs&amp;t=261\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">4:15 point<\/a>, more is seen on that at these two articles: &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/eidclimate.org\/climate-investigations-center-utilizes-dark-money-network-to-obscure-its-funders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Climate Investigations Center Utilizes Dark Money Network to Obscure its Funders<\/a>&#8221; \/ &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/issues\/climate-change-reporting-website-obscures-its-funding-with-dark-money-network\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Climate Change Reporting Website Obscures Its Funding With Dark Money Network<\/a>.&#8221; My own recently heightened personal awareness about the amount of money coming into Davies CIC organization finally prompted me to <a href=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/?p=9687\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reexamine his long-term association<\/a> with Ozone Action co-founder \/ <a href=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/GP-nee-OA-874x1024.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">subsequent Greenpeace USA executive director<\/a> John Passacantando.<\/p>\n<p>Starting at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DgMZUZJyXXs&amp;t=288\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">4:48 point<\/a> of his video, Dr Gannon says that Davies was the chief architect at Greenpeace&#8217;s ExxonSecrets website project beginning in 2004. True, but it&#8217;s more complicated than that. As I also detailed in my above-mentioned February 25, 2015 GelbspanFiles blog post, Davies&#8217; earliest work was at the Environmental Working Group, which produced a Clearinghouse on Environmental Advocacy and Research (CLEAR) report <a href=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Soon-CLEAR-undated.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">smear effort against Dr Soon<\/a> \u2026.. and then Davies teamed up <a href=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/OA-staff-Passac-Davies2.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">with Passacantando at Ozone Action<\/a>, the place I term <a href=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/?p=4482\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the epicenter of the smear of skeptic climate scientists<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding the quip at the <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/DgMZUZJyXXs?t=387\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">6:30 point<\/a> that Dr Soon would accept money from anybody so long as he is free from direction to do so. That is also true, a detail that accusers routinely exclude in their accusations against Dr Soon.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Soon-Reuters-Greenpeace.jpg\" width=\"487\" height=\"319\" \/><\/p>\n<p>One more detail, to illustrate an overall point. &#8220;<em>What about how Dr Soon&#8217;s work for Exxon was described as &#8216;deliverables?&#8217;<\/em>,&#8221; enviro-activists yell. Dr Gannon says at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DgMZUZJyXXs&amp;t=222\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">3:42 point<\/a> that there was no such list of &#8220;deliverables.&#8221; On top of that, even if the label was applied to something out of Harvard-Smithsonian, at least one dedicated Soon-hater at the Desmogblog smear site called out <a href=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Desmog-deliv-oops.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the folly of putting any stock<\/a> in the word &#8220;deliverables&#8221; as evidence of corruption.<\/p>\n<p>The goal behind pushing the accusation against Dr Soon and others is to distract the public away from answering a question Dr Soon himself succinctly posed to one of his critics: &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/?p=609\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Is what I say beyond the boundaries of reasonable discussion?<\/em><\/a>&#8221; When the public perceives his and other scientists&#8217; climate assessments to be reasonable, the global warming issue doesn&#8217;t look the least bit settled \u2026.. and that perception is what Al Gore and his mob knew early on had to be suppressed by any means possible.<\/p>\n<p>When Dr Gannon speaks of the entire false corruption accusation against Dr Soon as defamation, serious consideration should be considered regarding the possibility of taking legal action against Kert Davies and others intertwined in these ongoing character assassination efforts. The smear has potentially not only harmed Dr Soon personally as a violation of civil law, it may have strayed into the <a href=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/criminal-libel-theory.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">far larger arena of criminal libel\/slander<\/a>, with widespread harm to the public from the waste of time, money, and resources spent on fighting a supposed &#8216;climate catastrophe&#8217; which is very likely nothing more than natural climate variation that humans have no power to control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do an internet search for nothing simpler than the name &#8220;Willie Soon,&#8221; or the variant of &#8220;Wei-hock Soon,&#8221; and uncountable numbers of results pop up repeating some form of the accusation or insinuation that Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysicist Dr Soon was paid &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/?p=10173\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[96,46],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10173"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10173"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10187,"href":"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10173\/revisions\/10187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}