Mann wins defamation suit against climate change deniers

BishopBerkeley writes: The jury took little time to determine that Michale Mann had been defamed by conservative writers who likened him to a pedophile. He has received a $1 M judgment against the writers. This was likely because scrutiny of his data showed no malfeasance or misuse of data, but the "conservative" writers' accusations continued, nevertheless. From the article:
"Mann’s research was investigated after his and other scientists’ emails were leaked in 2009 in an incident known as “Climategate” that brought further scrutiny of the “hockey stick” graph, with skeptics claiming Mann manipulated data. Investigations by Penn State and others, including The Associated Press’ examination of the emails, found no misuse of data by Mann, but his work continued to draw attacks, particularly from conservatives.

“Mann could be said to be the Jerry Sandusky of climate science, except for instead of molesting children, he has molested and tortured data,” Simberg wrote. Another writer, Mark Steyn, later referenced Simberg’s article in his own piece in National Review, calling Mann’s research “fraudulent.” "