Politifact wrote a hit piece against Steve Doocy and me the other day without doing any actual fact checking or bothering to contact me. I responded to them and they asked me to send over my response. Here it is :
Jon,
Here is my rebuttal to your Fox’s Doocy piece. If you are a legitimate fact checker, you will post it on your site – as you made serious errors.
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Politifact accused Steve Doocy of being a liar, for accurately reporting on a blog post made on my blog (stevengoddard.wordpress.com) which showed how NASA has altered the US temperature record over time.
Politifact’s claim is the result of a failure to understand the topic, for the following reasons.
1. There is no question that the temperature record has been dramatically altered, to turn a long term cooling trend into a long term warming trend. No one disputes this.
2. You cited the explanation for why they do this, but made no effort to verify that their reasons are correct. Their adjustments are highly subjective, and are subject to software and algorithm errors. The adjustments could just as easily go the other way, and make the cooling trend even larger. The adjustments they make are based on opinion, not fact.
3. The expert list you cited was flawed.
Anthony Watts was discussing a different specific topic related to missing station data, and has since admitted he was wrong. If you actually contact him, you will find that out.
Mark Serreze has no experience or expertise with the temperature record
John Nielsen-Gammon and Zeke Hausfather are two people expressing their own opinion about the adjustments, and those opinions are subject to change as new facts emerge.
Jon Greenberg and Politifact did nothing to demonstrate that Doocy’s reporting was inaccurate, much less a lie. This is a scientific debate, which you simply don’t understand. You need to retract your article.
Tony Heller aka Steven Goddard
– Columbia, Maryland