Talk:Anthony Watts (blogger)

What bothers Watts most
Before recent edits by DHeyward, the text read


 * ''He further avers that what most bothers him about people who say there's lots of global warming is that "They want to change policy. They want to apply taxes and these kinds of things may not be the actual solution for making a change to our society." (bold added)

Although the bolded phrase was not formatted as a quote, it does use the language used by the interviewer, and this is critical because it defines the pronoun "they" in Watts' quote. DHeyward altered the meaning away from the RS by changing the bold text so that it instead reads climate change activists. Watts was not asked about "climate change activists", he was asked about "people who say there is a lot of global warming". Many many many people say that, and while they might want the things Watts describes they are totally inactive trying to make it happen.

To cure this problem, I then imported a direct quote for the journalist's question. What's more WP:VERIFIABLE and objective than that? The result read


 * " Asked "What’s the thing that bothers you the most about people who say there’s lots of global warming?" he replied "They want to change policy. They want to apply taxes and these kinds of things may not be the actual solution for making a change to our society."  (Bold added)

OOPS! While "climate change activists" was somehow dandy, apparently the verbatim question-and-answer is somehow toxic waste, which D removed entirely, with the edit summary


 *  rm. don't agree with interprtation of soundbite quotepull that spans multiple questions/answers . It's clear he means activists drawn to a cause and not everyone that believes in global warming (underline added)

Say what? "spans multiple questions/answers"?? No it doesn't. There is this question, followed by this answer. Read the transcript in the ref. Plain as my nose.

Side-bar, Watts' answer to the verbatim question "What’s the thing that bothers you the most about people who say there’s lots of global warming?" became the focus of commentary. There are 1500 Google hits on the verbatim question combined with "Watts". For example, Skeptical Science's Dana 1981 wrote,


 * '' Watts on His Motives and Double Standards


 * ''At Skeptical Science it is against our site policy to speculate about a person's motives, but in this case, Watts volunteered the information.


 * ''"SPENCER MICHELS: What's the thing that bothers you the most about people who say there's lots of global warming?


 * ''ANTHONY WATTS: They want to change policy. They want to apply taxes and these kinds of things may not be the actual solution for making a change to our society.


 * "It is interesting that Watts responds to a question about a science-based opinion with a criticism about policy. For example, Watts is not most bothered that people are ignoring or unaware of the biases that he incorrectly believes exist in the temperature record.  No, Watts is most bothered that we might implement an economically-beneficial carbon tax.

CONCLUSION The text should be restored to show both the question and the answer because
 * What bothers him most about those people is highly relevant to a biography about the man
 * The question is followed by the answer without interruption, contrary to D's edit summary
 * Using both the question and the answer is objective and NPOV, whereas DHeyward's edit puts words in Watts' mouth, based on DHeyward's interpretation of the word "they". He says his interpretation is "clear".  Well, it certainly isn't clear to me, because I prefer to read the RS text without committing WP:Original research.

please self-revert.

External links modified
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Heartland
Heartland Institute website lists him as a senior fellow. That seems to be relevant. Also, according to weather.gov a BA degree is a minimum requirement to be a meteorologist; the article seems to say he doesn't have a degree. 2600:1010:B1AB:C8AD:8995:3456:BCF6:5F87 (talk) 00:03, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Heartland is not a reliable source. --Hob Gadling (talk) 06:00, 29 July 2023 (UTC)