I charted yesterday how the reports of the National Academies’ report on the “hockey stick” went from the report’s language saying that it is “plausible” that recent decades are warmer than at any time in the past 1000 years to “likely” and then “most likely.” The AP now eliminates all doubt and goes even further. Its headline?

Earth hottest it’s been in 2,000 years

The article also claims that the NAS reconstructed past temperatures, which they did not, and that it found those temperatures were relatively stable, which it did not – it found clear evidence of the Little Ice Age and good evidence of the Medieval Warm Period.

This is as clear an example of media distortion of scientific information as I’ve seen.