Newspapers Retract ‘Climategate’ Claims, but Damage Still Done

An update on this old story, which captured only a very small part of a complex story.

Just because a news article reports someone has been charged with something does not mean that person is guilty. Journalists, like scientists, adjust their understanding of the truth when they encounter new evidence. Any account of the "climategate" gate controversy is incomplete if it doesn't acknowledge that journalists don't have crystals balls, and websites don't retract old news articles to reflect recent developments in the story. It's up to us, as news consumers, to spot when an article we are reading was published while events were still developing, and look up how the story developed over time. When the news is that accusations have been made, or files have been charged, that's just part of the story.

"However, the review found that the researchers concerned, led by the Director of UEA's world-renowned Climatic Research Unit (CRU), Professor Phil Jones, could not be faulted for their "rigour and honesty as scientists", and there was no evidence that they had behaved in a way that might undermine the conclusions of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)."

"'Conspiracy theories finally laid to rest' by report on leaked climate change emails"