Far Left Court Awards Dr Michael Mann ONE DOLLAR in Steyn Libel Case!

Written by John O'Sullivan on February 9, 2024. Posted in Current News

A far-left court in Washington D.C. awards the world’s worst climate data fraudster a pyrrhic legal win. In a farcical ruling defendant, Mark Steyn, must pay Dr Mann a million dollars in punitive damages but only ONE DOLLAR in compensation.

But defiant populist Canadian writer, Steyn, retorted:

“We always said that Mann never suffered any actual injury from the statement at issue,” Steyn said on Thursday through his manager. “And today, after twelve years, the jury awarded him one dollar in compensatory damages.”

Nonetheless, climate alarmists are jumping for joy, their prophet of climate doom vindicated, reports CBC. “It feels great,” Mann said Thursday after the six-person jury delivered its verdict.

“I hope this verdict sends a message that falsely attacking climate scientists is not protected speech,” Mann said in a statement.

Scientific American writes:

“After a four-week trial, a D.C. Superior Court jury awarded the climatologist $1 million after finding that Rand Simberg, writing for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Mark Steyn, writing for the National Review, had defamed Mann in blog posts published in 2012. They accused Mann of manipulating the science around his “hockey stick” graph illustrating the exponential rise of global temperatures.”

However, Alfred Irving, the judge presiding over the case, reminded the jury on Wednesday before they deliberated that their job was not to decide “whether there’s global warming” says the Washington Post.

Steyn, who represented himself at trial, plans to appeal the jury award. Speaking as a defending litigant in a previous Mann defamation suit, I’m not surprised at the outcome, but it should have been much different, and I explain why below.

A Little Background

Back in 2014 I wrote a PSI article that posed the question: Will Steyn Now Stick It The O’Sullivan Way To Climate Fraudster Michael Mann?  He didn’t.

Mann’s “hockey stick” graph, first published in 1998, was featured prominently in the U.N. IPCC 2001 climate report.  In 2003 a Canadian study showed the “hockey stick” curve “is primarily an artifact of poor data handling, obsolete data and incorrect calculation of principal components.” When the data was corrected it showed a warm period in the 15th Century that exceeded the warmth of the 20th Century.

So, the graph was junk science. But the big question then became: did Mann intentionally falsify his graph from motivation to make a profit and/or cause harm (i.e. commit the five elements of criminal fraud)?

On Feb. 03, 2010, a self-serving and superficial academic ‘investigation‘ by Pennsylvania State University had cleared Mann of misconduct. Mann also falsely claimed the NAS found nothing untoward with his work.

According to the leftist The Guardian newspaper (Feb. 09, 2010), the wider importance of Mann’s graph over the last 20 years is massive:

“Although it was intended as an icon of global warming, the hockey stick has become something else – a symbol of the conflict between mainstream climate scientists and their critics.”

Before Steyn entered the fray, I became an interested party in the Michael Mann-v-Timothy Ball. or  ‘science trial of the century.’ Back in 2011 I had signed a legally-binding ‘hold harmless’ indemnity with Dr Ball in the event he lost in court to mendacious Mann thus making me financially liable.

My good friend, Canadian skeptic climatologist, Dr Tim Ball won in 2019, after 8 years of litigation defeating a similar defamation suit.

At Principia Scientific International (PSI) we have known all about Mann’s shenanigans from the start. Mann became the main poster-boy for climate change before the ink was even dry on his PhD, all because of his ridiculously flawed ‘hockey stick’ tree ring temperature reconstructions.

This corrupt verdict is not the end of the story. On my TNT Radio show Sky Dragon Slaying we pull no punches and routinely call out the climate criminals.

LISTEN TO PSI EXPERTS  OPENLY DISCUSS CLIMATE SCIENCE FRAUD:

TNT RADIO EVERY SATURDAY 9AM-11AM (EASTERN)

Michael Mann Belongs in the State Pen, Not Penn State

In my dreams Mann finally sues me. I’m game, as are my compatriots over here on the side of scientific transparency and truth.

Tim Ball was calling Mann out soon after his tree ring construction was published in the journal, Nature. Moreover, those of us who read the Climategate emails, leaked in 2009 saw how crooked Mann was and how he bullied colleagues to bow to his corrupt practices and abandon the scientific method.

The thousands of emails leaked in 2009 from the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit (CRU) exposed Mann and his pals from that “Real Climate” sewer for what they really are – nothing but bully-boy activists, masquerading as scientists.

Anyone who reads serious works such as by one of the most eminent statisticians of our time, Edward Wegman, see Mann’s “mistakes” in rigging his 1,000-year global temperature graph that was the icon of UN IPCC Third Report (2000). Further damning analysis came from McIntyre and McKitrick and in Andrew Monckton’s Hockey Stick illusion, a great read on the matter.  It is why Ball quipped Mann ‘belongs in the state pen, not Penn State.’

But the doomsaying, junk science peddlers at Nature are gloating:

“Mann tells Nature that he hopes the win “signals the beginning of the end of the open season on scientists by ideologically-motivated bad actors. And maybe, just maybe, that facts and reason still matter even in today’s fraught political economy”.

Why Did Steyn Lose and Ball Win?

I aided Dr Ball every step of the way through The Supreme Court of British Columbia until it finally tossed out Mann’s SLAPP suit and awarded him full legal costs, estimated to be more than a million dollars.

As Wall Street Journal contributor William McGurn observes, the beauty of “bringing down” Steyn or any of the other defendants is that Mr. Mann doesn’t have to prevail to do it; he just has to keep the suit going in hopes the legal fees bury them.

Sadly, Steyn was worn down by a very similar SLAPP suit (Strategic lawsuits against public participation).

Month by month, year by year, like us, he endured lawfare funded by the deep pockets of leftist billionaires. He ran out of money for his defense fund. But Dr Ball’s legal team adroitly pursued the ‘truth defense’ such that the case boiled down to whether Ball’s words (“belongs in the state pen, not Penn State”) fairly and accurately portrayed Mann i.e. Mann knowingly and criminally misrepresented his claims by using statistical fakery.

We knew we had the better of Mann both logistically and intellectually and we outwitted and outlasted his legal team. I’ve never spoken with Steyn nor had the opportunity to offer my insights. I believe Steyn’s mistake was underestimating the enemy, and I am sorry that he has also paid such a high price on his health, in particular.

Mann lost to Ball because he wilfully delayed open court examination of the R2 regression numbers behind his proxy tree ring climate reconstruction. For more in the details of that read our previous article where we show that Mann’s goal was to make the Little Ice Age (LIA) ‘disappear.’The LIA was an especially cold era that ended around 1840 and since then global temperatures have gradually risen. But government ‘experts’ like Mann have sought to use statistical trickery to make such natural variation appear as ‘man-made’ warming.

Apart from playing with statistics Mann made his proxy fit the thermometer data by adding thermometer values to the proxy values known as “mikes trick” in the climate gate email scandal.

But errant Mann dodged paying up the dough and my friend, Tim Ball, died penniless on September 24  2022.

We want to finish the job Principia Scientific co-founder, Tim Ball, started so well but still not received his due.

Why is Michael Mann Still Not in Jail?

About the author, John O’Sullivan (United Kingdom): John is CEO and co-founder (with Dr Tim Ball) of Principia Scientific International (PSI). John co-hosts TNT Radio’s Sky Dragon Slaying show with fellow PSI co-founders, Joe Olson and Joe Postma. He is a seasoned science writer and adept legal analyst who assisted Dr Ball in defeating world leading climate expert, Michael ‘hockey stick’ Mann in the multi-million-dollar ‘science trial of the century‘. O’Sullivan is credited as the visionary who formed the original ‘Slayers’ group of scientists in 2010 who then collaborated in creating the world’s first full-volume ‘Slaying the Sky Dragon: Death of the Greenhouse GasTheory’ debunking alarmist lies about carbon dioxide plus their follow-up climate book. His latest publication, ‘Slaying the Virus and Vaccine Dragon’ exposes dangerous mainstream medical group think and junk science.

Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Defend the Scientific Method

PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX. 

Trackback from your site.