Heartland's Joe Bast lashes out at Institute's own "friends"

Wed, 2012-05-16 16:51Richard Littlemore
Richard Littlemore's picture

Heartland's Joe Bast lashes out at Institute's own "friends"


In a letter to one of the "scholars" who have asked to be removed from the list of "Heartland experts" (BigCityLiberal is keeping a good headcount here), Bast complains that his institute has always tried to stay "above the fray," and it's now being victimized "by ideological extremists as part of the ongoing attack on us and our donors."

In that light, Bast scolds his former supporter:


But what tactics? Heartland started all this with a billboard campaign advocating a message that "the most prominent advocates of global warming aren't scientists. They are murderers, tyrants and madmen." The single billboard that actually featured in the campaign showed a picture of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, with a sign saying, "I still believe in global warming. Do you?"

Bast now says of that image: "We took it down immediately and admitted that it was in poor taste and a mistake ...."

Well, here the "truth seeking and honesty" seems to crash and burn. Heartland took the ad down, sure enough, but when Bast announced the billboard's demise, he said:



Even now, Bast says,


Neither true nor honest. Kaczynski's whacky manifesto contains nary a single reference to either "global warming" or "climate change."


"Almost alone among think tanks, we focus on communicating with people who do not already agree with us. We rely on research and reason, not rhetoric and emotion ...."






And the answer is "NO, never have and never will"

And wasn't the letter that got Gleick to phish Heartland a board memo?

Only someone with a troubled conscience would have forwarded that memo.

Self-justifying bullstuff. Wow.



Wow-- lashing out at anyone and everyone.  This is a magnificent  disintegration-- something like Zaphod Beeblebrox (but without the charm): "you go to pieces so fast, people get hit by the shrapnel"--and so well-deserved. 

Heartland has friends.  I had thought it only had opportunists.






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