Tag Archives: John Tierney

Fact Checkers Or Fact Blockers?

While Facebook claims it is fair and impartial in presenting information, its censorship hammer has come down hard on respected journalists who disagree with its views on the pandemic and the  environment.

The social media giant relies on a group fact of checkers–most notably Science Feedback–based on the advice of the Poynter Institute, which calls itself a global leader in journalism with a commitment to nonpartanship and fairness. But they’re hardly nonpartisan, says John Stossel, who himself was censored by Facebook.

Stossel says Science Feedback censored former New York Times reporter John Tierney for daring to say that masking kids can do harm and silenced environmentalist Michael Shellenberger, who said climate change is not an apocalypse and that we’re not in a mass extinction. They also censored statistician and environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg for pointing out that data show that temperature-related deaths fell as the world warms.

So why would Facebook censor important facts? Are they working with legitimate fact checkers or fact blockers? Here’s more with Stossel.

The Skeptical Environmentalist

Instead of throwing away money on “feel-good” initiatives like recycling and building wind turbines to curb global warming, Danish environmental writer Bjorn Lomborg says there are plenty of less sexy and less costly projects that could be undertaken that would have a much more dramatic and positive environmental impact. Lomborg, the author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, shares his ideas here with New York Times science columnist John Tierney.

“The thing that blows my mind is that we spend so much money on feeling good,” says Lomborg. “I would like us to do stuff that actually works.”  The two appeared for a talk at New York’s Museum of Sex, sponsored by the Reason Foundation.