Hot air campaigner and Republican attack dog Marc Morano is once again using the Minority Page on the website of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and the Environment to bash media that don't provide his kind of "balance" in climate change reporting.

Morano's target this time is the Associated Press Science writer Seth Borenstein, who reported on Monday that most (reputable) scientists fear that rising sea levels will swamp important American historical sites during the current century.

Morano doesn't bother to address the science OR the credentials of the experts whose work Borenstein quotes. Rather, the man known as Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe's "pet weasel" flails at the AP reporter because Borenstein "only quotes six scientists in the article, of which only one can be labeled a climate skeptic." Morano then goes on to quote twice as many climate change deniers - from tainted industry apologists like Fred Singer, to TV weather forecasters like "Emmy Nominated meteorologist Art Horn."

Presumably, AP employs Borenstein because he is not stupid enough to get sucked in by Morano favorites like the Viscount Christopher Monckton of Brenchley, whose most recent "scoop" was so thoroughly discredited last week. And Borenstein is further limited by the quaint notion that he should stick to actual published science, rather than reaching for supposedly revolutionary articles that have been "accepted for publication," but not, in fact, published in any reputable source.

The bottom line, though, is that Morano is not actually trying to win this debate: even he is smart enough to know that's not going to happen. Rather, he is trying to cast suspicion on the mainstream media sources that play such an important role in holding Morano and Inhofe's oily benefactors to account. This is not just an attack on Borenstein or even an attack on science. It is a shot at one the the institutions that is so important to the "free democracy" about which Morano professes to care.