http://twitter.com/#!/KatMcKinley/status/515945902549131265

As Twitchy noted last week, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has been in a war of words with Sean Davis of The Federalist regarding a number of “quotes/anecdotes” used by Dr. Tyson that cannot be verified or sourced. The most egregious of these errors was a quote that Dr. Tyson had used numerous times in the past to smear President George W. Bush:

Neil de Grasse Tyson's larger point – that GW Bush spent time trash-talking Islam – is even falser than his "facts" http://t.co/d0uui8jvRq

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) September 16, 2014

Fast-forward to this morning (but not too fast because we don’t want to cause any paradoxes in the timeline) where Dr. Tyson took to his Facebook page and basically admitted he messed up the quote:

"Now, however, it seems clear that Davis was right all along." http://t.co/TB9ohqHn2r (via @jadler1969)

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 27, 2014

And no, Dr. Tyson’s admission really isn’t good enough as he doesn’t address or apologize for all the times he used the quote in error to make President Bush sound stupid:

So NDT now says his memory of Bush 43's attack on Islam is from the time that Bush didn't even mention Islam. This guy is not smart.

— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) September 27, 2014

I've had my spats with @seanmdav but @neiltyson is clearly in the wrong here: http://t.co/3vxwXv44rN

— Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) September 27, 2014

So, in conclusion, @neiltyson, your response to my charges of fabrication didn't even get past the second word before it was false. Kudos.

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 27, 2014

@bradcundiff @neiltyson He can't even just say "oops" about something as simple as a quote

— Michele Frost (@michelelfrost) September 27, 2014

@michelelfrost @neiltyson he is exhibit A as to why you can never have a reasoned factual debate with a progressive.

— Brad Cundiff (@bradcundiff) September 27, 2014

This is actually far from over and we’ll see what happens next week as The Federalist is in a battle with Wikipedia over a now admitted (we think) major error by Dr. Tyson. Stay tuned.

Related:

Sean Davis: Wikipedia’s scrubbing of Neil deGrasse Tyson controversy ‘would make China proud’

Update (7:50):

From Mollie Hemingway:

Shorter Neil Tyson: If I remember it, it must have happened even if there's zero evidence http://t.co/WY0bZcwyud

— The Federalist (@FDRLST) September 27, 2014

The conclusion:

I couldn’t be more disappointed at his continued defensiveness and excuse-making. And the media should know that Sean’s initial — even casual — look into just a few claims made by Tyson is not exhaustive by a long shot. They happened to simply be the first few things he looked into. If they don’t dig further and instead dig in, that’s telling as well.

 

Read more: http://twitchy.com/2014/09/27/neil-degrasse-tyson-finally-admits-he-was-wrong-kind-of/