John Christy: "This gets to the issue that the "consensus" reports now are just the consensus of those who agree with the consensus. The government-selected authors have become gatekeepers rather than honest brokers of information"

2009 ClimateGate email

[Santer] John Christy is not a good scientist. I'm not a religious man, but I'm sure willing to
thank some higher authority that Dr. John Christy is not the
"gatekeeper" of what constitutes sound science.

[Christy]
> This gets to the issue that the "consensus" reports now are just the
> consensus of those who agree with the consensus. The
> government-selected authors have become gatekeepers rather than honest
> brokers of information. That is a real tragedy, because when someone
> becomes a gatekeeper, they don't know they've become a gatekeeper - and
> begin to (sincerely) think the non-consensus scientists are just nuts
> (... it's more comfortable that way rather than giving them credit for
> being skeptical in the face of a paradigm).