Clearly the New York Times Magazine had zero idea just how much its heavily promoted 30,000-word climate story was going to rile up environmental activists. Or did they? The response to the Times article from the climate crowd was fast and furious – and was made possible by the Times itself.

As EID pointed out last week, the Times story is a crushing blow to the infamous #ExxonKnew narrative funded by wealthy anti-fossil fuel organizations: that the energy company knew the “truth” about climate change decades ago, but covered it up to mislead the public. The Times, however, destroyed that narrative by showing that #EveryoneKnew as far back as the 1970s that climate change was real and happening, but there simply was little interest among elected leaders to do anything.

Activists were ready to pounce and show their deep displeasure with the story because the Times had actually provided activists the story in advance of publication. And if that’s not bad enough, top brass at the paper hosted a private dinner with activists the night before publication. If the Times was unaware of the blowback about to hit them, they certainly heard from activists that night.

How do we know this? Because environmental activists couldn’t help themselves.

Read the full post on EIDClimate.org.