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Arianna Huffington Does the Right Thing, Admits Publishing Anti-Science Piece Was Mistake |
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One of the best attributes of a quality media outlet is a willingness to correct mistakes and try to make things right. When Huffington Post published a piece over the weekend riddled with discredited attacks on Al Gore and anti-science propaganda, I was livid. Now, with a nudge from Adam Siegel and others, they have come correct with an explanation and clarification.
Via email, Huffington Post has provided Arianna’s statement:
Harold Ambler reached out to me about posting a critical piece on Al Gore and the environment. We are always open to posts that present opinions contrary to HuffPost’s editorial view — and have welcomed many conservative voices, such as David Frum, Tony Blankley, Michael Smerconish, Bob Barr, Joe Scarborough, Jim Talent, etc., to the site. We have featured also countless posts from the leading lights of the Green movement, including Robert Redford, Laurie David, Carl Pope, Van Jones, David Roberts, and many others — and I myself have written extensively about the global warming crisis, and have been highly critical of those who refuse to acknowledge the overwhelming scientific evidence.When Ambler sent his post, I forwarded it to one of our associate blog editors to evaluate, not having read it. I get literally hundreds of posts a week submitted like this and obviously can’t read them all — which is why we have an editorial process in place. The associate blog editor published the post. It was an error in judgment. I would not have posted it. Although HuffPost welcomes a vigorous debate on many subjects, I am a firm believer that there are not two sides to every issue, and that on some issues the jury is no longer out. The climate crisis is one of these issues.
I really appreciate Arianna taking the time to explain what went wrong in the editorial process, and more importantly, to clarify her long-held position on the climate crisis. While I would have liked to have seen this posted on Huffington Post, as well as the deletion of Harold Ambler’s original post, this good-faith effort to do the right thing goes a long way toward making things right.
Meanwhile, Harold Ambler is caught yet another in a lie. In a comment on David Roberts’ piece, he writes:
My only contact with the site prior to being published was Arianna Huffington herself, who read my piece, accepted it, and directed her staff to post it.
Thanks but no thanks, Harold. I’ll stick with Arianna’s version of the story.
More from: Adam Siegel and David Roberts.
You assume that he is lying. If I’d emailed the editor and had my controversial article published I think it would be a safe assumption that she’d read it.
Maybe she’s lying. Now there’s no way to tell, it’s a classic he said she said.
She certainly had the article available to read. So if she didn’t read it and now regrets it shame on her.
I think having the article out there for public debate is a good thing for the Huffington Post. Why apologize for it?