I guess it's no surprise that conservative pundits think climate science is about deliberately misleading people for political point-scoring. That's what their agenda is, so why should anyone else's be different? After a recent poll showed that 69 percent of Americans believe it's at least "somewhat likely" that "some scientists" may have falsified climate data, the right-wing media response amounted to "Hey, that's our lie! Look how well it's doing! We rule!"
Here's Limbaugh's response, which (as usual) provides the most egregious example. What a proud papa!
Limbaugh, Aug. 4: "While a majority of Americans nationwide continue to acknowledge significant disagreement about global warming in the scientific community, most go even further to say that some scientists are falsifying data to support their own beliefs." I'm going to raise my hand and I'm going to take credit. This has been one of my pet peeve issues for as long as I've had this show.
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And 69% of the American people now say it's likely scientists have been lying about their own research. We win.
For starters, the poll is not all that definitive — somewhat likely? Some scientists? But more to the point, it measures public opinion only. If you believe that the fight over climate change is one of who gets the most "likes" on Facebook, then it makes sense for Limbaugh et al. to declare victory. Unfortunately (for them, and also for all of us), the fight is actually one of fact versus yelling. And when the yelling dominates public opinion, we all lose, even Rush.
