The Inquirer‘s Faye Flam gives herself a pat on the back in a p. 1 story that ran over the weekend. She tells readers that prominent and local climate scientist Michael Mann of Penn State, one of the researchers whose emails figure large in the dust-up over hacking the server at England’s University of East Anglia, “has been accused of dodging the press.” But he agreed readily to talk to her. One is not sure whether this means she has an in that other journos don’t, or that he does not dodge the press. My impression is that he’s been pretty good to media, esp. reporters on the enviro beat. Either way, Flam merits that pat on the back. The story tells readers, and a lot of reporters who had never asked, how Mann got into the climate field and what drives him. It provides, therefore, personal context for a story that has lacked it.

Flam’s opening, reader-snaring angle is that her subject has, according to blogospheric accounts, a $12 million bounty on his head. Not dead or alive, but if-he’s-exposed-as-a-fraud kind of bounty. The story itself offers no evidence that the professor did anything seriously or even half-seriously wrong. It has a lot of evidence that he’s a solid, honest member of the academy. But still. He IS under investigation by the university (not that it has much choice, given the profile of public and lawmaker attention).

To have been complete Flam might have called up some of the skeptics, including the oft-quoted Pat Michaels, to learn more on why exactly they consider Mann a fraud, or if in light of what Mann says for himself they’d modify their opinions. Simply as a report on Mann’s history, the emails, and his feelings about being the target of so much vitriol, this is good journalism with many details I’d not seen anywhere else.

Somewhat related climate scientists news:

BBC under its Viewpoint op-ed escutcheon gives one of the science bosses at the UK’s Met Office a chance to explain weather v. climate, and why scientists need to be more assertive and forthcoming with reporters.

- Charlie Petit

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 1:36 pm and is filed under Environment & Energy Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.