George Will's column last Sunday, expressing once again his skepticism toward the scientific consensus on climate change, turns out to not only be deeply tendentious but also contains two outright factual errors. Zachary Roth tried to follow up with Will and the Washington Post's editorial page editor, but so far hasn't gotten any answers.
While we all wait to hear back about a correction, it may be worth revisiting this 2006 Will column on bloggers:
There are, however, essentially no reins on the Web -- few means of control and direction. That is good, but it vitiates the idea that the Web's chaos of entertainment, solipsism and occasional intellectual seriousness and civic engagement is anything like a polity (a "digital democracy").
If by "no reins," Will means that bloggers can publish outright falsehoods without consequence, then he's correct. But he might not be the best person to make this point.
--Jonathan Chait