One of the most bizarre reactions to the St. Valetines Day Striptease, in which the Heartland Institute was tempted by a mild-mnannered scientist to completely expose itself – its strategies, funders and plans for the new year – is the complaint by “neutral” observers like Judith Curry that people were somehow picking on Heartland unfairly.
Even aside from the reams of evidence in the Striptease documents, Heartland has a long history of mining money from questionable corporate funders and then representing itself as a (taxpayer subsidized) “think tank” – as if its some kind of educational organization contributing to the public conversation about difficult issues.
The document – and Heartland’s own self-celebrating promotional efforts – make absolutely clear that Heartland is a lobbyist, and given that its favourite client through the years has been the tobacco industry, we know for sure it’s a lobbyist with no particular standards.
Here, as evidence toward that point, is a wonderful wrap, by the blog Planet 3.0/Beyond Sustainability of Heartland’s history of blowing smoke on behalf of funders Philip Morris, et al.
