Lefty blogging 101

Computer scientist and academic Tim Lambert is a prolific political blogger, his Deltoid blog at ScienceBlogs.com securing a substantial following of loyal – more accurately, lock-stepped – commenters. In fact, Lambert obviously devotes much more time and attention to his blog than to his academic career: according to his offical page at the University of New South Wales his most recent published paper in his area of actual expertise was produced in 2005. His personal UNSW page is also indicative of a lack of interest in his work: his "research projects" page was lasted updated in 1999; the link to his Computer Science Program Director page produces a "Server error 404" page; and the link to the "Computer Science Honours Home Page" provides helpful information for students wanting to know more about the 2007 Honours programs.

Anyway, in his spare time Lambert has established himself as something of a fact-checker, hence his fact-check-boy nickname. He is renowned for picking up "errors" for which he demands retractions or corrections, as here, for example. Lambert on the other hand has made numerous errors – many of them intentional deceptions – which he refuses to correct or even acknowledge, rather than addressing the issues, choosing instead – gutlessly – to bounce my links to his personal blog.

Lambert attacks not only contrarians on the right but also fellow Lefties who don't toe the line. New Scientist's Fred Pearce is a good example: Lambert attacking him for daring to suggest that DDT had been maligned by the Left and just the other day because Pearce dared to attempt balance when reporting a climate change issue, Lambert linking to a blog post describing Pearce as a "rubbish journalist" producing "crap reporting" and as an "equal opportunity offender". All of this because Pearce left it to readers to make their own judgements about an ongoing climate debate.

For true believing Lefties like Lambert independent thinking is verboten.