Social Media Bully Won’t Debate Climatologist He’s Harassed For Years

Written by Dr Roger Pielke Jr on April 10, 2018. Posted in Current News

Judd Legum is an editor for the Center for American Progress, where he oversees their “Climate Progress” blog.  Over the years, in his role as editor, he oversaw or wrote some 160+ articles about me on their pages, misrepresenting my research and political views.

After I wrote an article for Nate Silver at 538 in 2014, he called up Silver (and Silver’s lead editor) to demand I be fired.

In 2016, the Wikileaks releases revealed Legum was misrepresenting my work as part of a political campaign on behalf of billionaire Tom Steyer.

But that embarrassment hasn’t kept Legum away, just yesterday he again took to Twitter to misrepresent my academic work. It’s always the same playbook.

I’ve had enough of CAP and their lies, misrepresentations, and character assassination. So yesterday I challenged Legum to back up his Twitter and Wikileaks bravado in a public debate with me.

If my work has been “comprehensively debunked” by CAP and is the work of “deniers” then he should be able to destroy me in a public forum, giving a powerful lesson to anyone foolish enough to challenge him.

Here is how Legum responded in declining the opportunity to debate the subject of my 538 article that has had him so worked up over these past four years:

I think on the topic, the idea of what’s driving the costs of disasters is a technical topic that would not create a compelling public debate. The arguments all hinge on data analysis that would be boring and no readily comprehensible for a general debate.

Say what? A “technical topic”? And “not readily comprehensible”? So much for the Wikileaks bravado about debunking my work and all that.

More generally Legum responded:

I’m not sure you actually stake out any such positions that I disagree with.

This is a remarkable admission from the guy at the Center for American Progress who has overseen a decade-long effort to destroy my academic career through social media bullying, behind the scenes politicking, and the spreading of outright lies.

It also shows what happens when bullies are challenged but can’t back it up. They back down and slink away.

Read more at The Climate Fix

Trackback from your site.