More Fast and Loose with the Facts over at EO...and at Powerline

I'm gonna start writing more about blogging ethics...

Joe Carter over at Evangelical Outpost has been pretty fast and loose with the facts lately, it seems.

First, there's his thunderous silence in response to the Panda's Thumb update on the Sternberg affair, which pretty much demolishes his credulous posting over Sternberg based on an "Opinion Journal" piece.


Then of course there's the German Prostitution article that's been debunked below.


The latest example comes with Carter's credulous parroting of Powerline's trashing of Bill Moyers. For the record, I can't stand Bill Moyers. But that's another story.

Powerline writes, in quoting that Moyers wrote "In public testimony [Watt] said, 'after the last tree is felled, Christ will come back.'":

I read Moyers' piece after several readers pointed out to us how over-the-top it was. I knew that Moyers' claims about Watt couldn't possibly be true, for two reasons. First, the concept of stewardship is so fundamental to Christian theology that the claim is laughable on its face. Second, I remember the Reagan administration. James Watt was a controversial figure; but one thing he was not controversial for was advocating environmental pillaging, on the theory that Jesus would be back any day now. That would have been quite a news story in the early 1980s, had it been true.

I did some quick Google searches without finding anything noteworthy; in particular, I couldn't find Mr. Watt's Congressional testimony online. I put the matter aside, not having time to pursue it further.

Now, Powerline then says that Watt contacted them and said the quote was wrong. And so it was... but then Carter goes Powerline further- too far, in fact, and says Watt never made such a statement! Wanna bet?

Here's one reference.

Here's another. Oh, you don't like the Secular web? Well why should we trust track records like we've seen lately from the religious right? (And no, Mr. Cizik, you're not mainstream.)

UPDATE

Well, it turns out rather than believe Bill Moyers, Powerline would rather believe a guy who got hit with 25 counts of lying to Congress about his lobbying HUD on behalf of private developers. Watt eventually copped a plea to a single misdemeanor charge of attempting to mislead a federal grand jury and thereby avoided trial.
So, it turns out Powerline- and EO? would rather believe the word of a convicted liar.