Blast from the past: A Public Library of Science article talks about the role of blogs in exposing the erroneous 2005 Ivory-billed Woodpecker rediscovery announcement

PLoS Biology: Ghost Bird – The Ivory-billed Woodpecker: Hopes, Dreams, and Reality

A new element at the interface between science and the public makes an important debut in Ghost Bird—the Internet blog. Tom Nelson, an electrical engineer from Minneapolis, Minnesota, began writing of his concerns about the quality of the evidence supporting rediscovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker shortly after the science was first questioned. Under the banner “Ivory-bill Skeptic” dozens of individuals contributed important discussion of the scientific issues. Nelson is interviewed in the movie and comments that it is “important to get the science right.”

David Sibley echoes Nelson's comments and touts the value of the blog in providing an anonymous outlet for those interested. Most of the comments were posted anonymously out of fear of being criticized by colleagues for taking one stance or another. Although it must be noted that anonymity also eliminates responsibility. Other blogs (such as Ivory-bills Live ???! and an adjunct to the WorldTwitch blog called Peckergate) also joined the discussions of how science was working or not working and might have been used.

As I've written before, the Ivory-bill controversy contained a lot of the same elements of the global warming controversy--an absolutely lousy "body of evidence", ridiculous models, believers versus realists [who were allegedly evil/stupid/well-funded/nature-haters/etc] , bloggers vs mainstream media, appeals to authority, rubber-stamp peer-review, etc etc.

As I watch the global warming hoax crumble, I feel like I've "seen this movie before".