Michael Mann Finally Goes Away

National Review Online

Friday, October 31, 2025

 

More than a decade ago, the climate scientist Michael Mann wrote us a threatening letter demanding that we take down a blog post about his sketchy research by Mark Steyn.

 

We told him to get lost. We let him know we would never take down the post, since it was First Amendment–protected speech, and a lawsuit against us would inevitably fail.

 

Sure enough, Mann has finally dropped any claims against us after wasting God knows how much money from his (presumed) financial backers, and Mark Steyn’s post on how Mann’s famous hockey stick graph is intellectually bogus and wrong is still right here for your reading pleasure.

 

Mann boasted that he would destroy us, and we are still here, alive and thriving, while he is slinking away in humiliation.

 

Ah, the First Amendment is so inconvenient isn’t it, Mr. Mann?

 

Now, it is true that Mann’s suit against us, thanks to dilatory and irresponsible judges, dragged on for an ungodly twelve years and drained us of time and resources. Mann also, shamefully, got judgments against Steyn and Rand Simberg (who posted a critique of Mann that Steyn quoted) from a friendly D.C. jury. A series of legal reverses for Mann since then, though, suggest that this purported victory will wash away under scrutiny from more objective authorities.

 

As gratifying as the legal outcome in this case is the fact that Mann and his ilk are now losing the climate debate. All you need to know about how that is going can be found by reading Mann’s whinging about Bill Gates and the billionaire’s shockingly sensible new stance on climate change.

 

We will continue, as we have throughout this suit, to push back forcefully against Michael Mann–style hysteria on the climate, which seeks to do so much harm to our economy and society.

 

Meantime, we want to thank all of you, our readers, for doing so much to support us in fighting this meritless and harassing legal assault. We deeply appreciate your donations and your well-wishes.

 

We are grateful to our counsel, Anthony Dick, for his wisdom and perseverance, and for the work of his predecessors on the case, our friends Michael Carvin, Shannen Coffin, and the late David Rivkin.

 

And we appreciate all our friends on the right — and the occasional principled supporter of free speech on the left — who have publicly made the case for us during this suit.

 

We wish we could thank the American legal system, but it failed by letting this outrage continue for so long, and Steyn and Simberg are yet to have their free-speech rights vindicated, although, again, we believe that day is coming.

 

As for Michael Mann, he’s belatedly taken our very good advice from so many years ago, and gotten lost.