Heartland Institute silently modifies old press release

cite as: F. Bi. 2008. Heartland Institute silently modifies old press release. Intl. J. Inact., 1:29–30

So, what’s the latest development in the train wreck that’s the “Heartland 500” list? Well, check out the following sets of web archives. The following snapshots of the relevant pages were taken by yours truly on 2 May and 30 Apr:

• the 1 May 2008 press release. announcing the addition of 100 names after the publication of Unstoppable Global Warming;
• the 14 Sep 2007 press release announcing the original list of 500 scientists; and
• the list proper.

Now, I’ve taken another snapshot of the pages today (4 May), and here they are:

• the 1 May 2008 press release;
• the 14 Sep 2007 press release; and
• the list itself.

Notice something? Well, dear readers, the list of scientists remains unchanged and is still titled “Co-Authors”… and the contents of the pages are exactly the same on both occasions… except for one thing. The title of the 14 Sep press release has been changed from

500 Scientists with Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares: Alphabetical List

to

500 Scientists Whose Research Contradicts Man-Made Global Warming Scares

Amusingly, the 1 May press release still refers to the 14 Sep news item by its old name, even today.

Well, I really appreciate Heartland’s effort to make a token effort at straightening out the record on the scientists… and to make Avery’s past self look more reasonable. They’re not rewriting history — no, no, no, I won’t suggest that they are — they’re just straightening out the record. And they deserve to be applauded for it.

Update 2008-05-06: Heartland explains in a new press release that the change was made “in response to the complaints” on the list. Hmm…