Stephen Downes

Would it be too much to say that the National Post is lying to the Canadian public? No, that would be a lot kinder than what many others are saying. Like this commentator:

The National Post is reaching new lows of vulgar propaganda in its intellectually dishonest attempts to influence public opinion in the direction its political affiliations. Its downright disgusting to see such blatant attempts at dishonest propaganda, on a almost daily basis on the cover and throughout your paper...

There are huge amounts of the Canadian public that see right through your ugly and transparent attempts to manipulate and dupe the public with persuasive and distorted words. You should be ashamed of yourselves for displaying such a lack of journalistic integrity.

I'm inclined to agree, after the newspaper's take on NASA scientist James E. Hansen's take on Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth:

James E. Hansen, a NASA scientist and one of Mr. Gore's advisors, agreed the movie has "imperfections" and "technical flaws." About An Inconvenient Truth's connection of rising hurricane activity to global warming - something refuted by storm experts - Mr. Hansen said, "we need to be more careful in describing the hurricane story than he is."

What does Hansen really think? From his review:

It is hard to predict how this unusual presentation will be received by the public; but Gore has put together a coherent account of a complex topic that Americans desperately need to understand. The story is scientifically accurate and yet should be understandable to the public, a public that is less and less drawn to science.

I am in favour of freedom of the press, however, I think that out-and-out lying ought to be illegal, and that the National Post editors ought to be called to account for their dissembling.

What was that comment again?

Your paper has become simply a biased, desperate political propaganda rag.

Yeah, that's about right.

Via Deltoid, which has extended quotes