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The controversy re Ambler’s deceptive Huffington Post post continued, with many right-wing and deniers jumping on it, trumpeting proof that somehow Huffington Post was now a denier community member. Amid those responding to Ambler, whether simply with a slap across the face or with substantive, point-by-point rebuttals, several made comments about Ambler’s post being an error within junior staff at Huffington Post over the holidays after Ambler had, repeatedly, repeatedly truthiness diatribes rejected by HuffPost’s editorial staff. Ambler responded to these posts with comments like the following (see comments section):

there is a second factual error in your piece regarding how I got posted on HuffPo. My only contact with the site prior to being published was Arianna Huffington herself, who read my piece, accepted it, and directed her staff to post it.

Okay. That one created a pause. Had Arianna Huffington, who had often spoken and written about Global Warming and the problems caused by those rejecting science, changed her mind? Was the door now open for the Huffington Post to be wide-open for any and all deniers to publish?

This led to a direct request to Huffington Post asking a response to the following questions:

• Is what Harod AmblerAmbler writes (as per below) true?
• Did Arianna Huffington read and direct that “Mr Gore: Apology Accepted” be published?
• Does Arianna Huffington have any comment about the content of Mr. Ambler’s opinion piece?

Just received are Arianna’s responses to my questions:

Harold Ambler reached out to me about posting a critical piece on Al Gore and the environment. We are always open to posts that present opinions contrary to HuffPost’s editorial view — and have welcomed many conservative voices, such as David Frum, Tony Blankley, Michael Smerconish, Bob Barr, Joe Scarborough, Jim Talent, etc., to the site. We have featured also countless posts from the leading lights of the Green movement, including Robert Redford, Laurie David, Carl Pope, Van Jones, David Roberts, and many others — and I myself have written extensively about the global warming crisis, and have been highly critical of those who refuse to acknowledge the overwhelming scientific evidence.

As a quick note, I have a feeling that Grist’s Dave Roberts is primping himself in front of the mirror being thrown into same breath as Robert Redford as a “leading light”.

Arianna continues

When Ambler sent his post, I forwarded it to one of our associate blog editors to evaluate, not having read it. I get literally hundreds of posts a week submitted like this and obviously can’t read them all — which is why we have an editorial process in place. The associate blog editor published the post. It was an error in judgment. I would not have posted it. Although HuffPost welcomes a vigorous debate on many subjects, I am a firm believer that there are not two sides to every issue, and that on some issues the jury is no longer out. The climate crisis is one of these issues.

Okay, Harold, are you calling Arianna a liar or will you be willing to admit that you erred in your commentary about how you got posted to Huffington Post?

And, will you be able to admit error (after error after error …) in your truthiness screed about Global Warming?

PS: While not in Arianna’s comments, I have been told by several HuffPost staff that yes, indeed, Ambler had repeatedly sought to have his anti-science diatriabe published and had been repeatedly rejected for publication by the relevant editor. I hope that editor kept some of the emails to provide documentation of Ambler’s outright falsehood on this simple an issue.