Did Gleick falsify the documents?
Time reports:
The major question now — beyond the legal ramifications for Gleick and the Heartland Institute — is whether the original document Gleick says he received, the strategy memo, is real or whether it’s a falsification as the Heartland Institute maintains. The problem for climate advocates, of course, is that suspicion will only grow that Gleick falsified the original document now that he has admitted using deception to get the additional memos. (And just so we’re clear, this is deception — no reputable investigative reporter would be permitted to do what Gleick did. It’s almost certainly a firing offense.)
The entire Heartland affair underscores just how politicized and fraught the battle over climate change has become — in case you hadn’t already noticed.
Occam’s Razor demands that Gleick wrote the fake memo:
It is totally un-credible that Gleick’s writing style is used in the memo, and that when he goes on his quest for verification, he manages to get those documents and only those documents needed to produce it. It is un-credible that the fake just happens to tout Gleick’s stellar reputation, website, and his current issue of teaching in schools. It is un-credible that he kept it held tightly to his chest, telling no one, instead of disseminating it to others to ask for their help in verifying it. It is un-credible that it arrived by snail-mail and that the dissemination document to the 15 does not mention the documents from HI were obtained to support the faked memo. Too many things are un-credible.
I am reminded of well known quotations like “the best lie is 90% truth”. Gleick created a lie he hoped would be credible by mixing 10% incendiary material in the fake with 90% truth supported by the documents he had obtained fraudulently. I am reminded also of “the father of lies” but won’t go there at this time.
It will be determined in court, or Gleick will confess earlier, that he wrote the fake.