How does this work, exactly?  The Los Angeles Times has decided that it will no longer publish letters to its editorial staff from “climate change deniers.”

The Times‘ letters editor, Paul Thornton, wrote, with no trace of irony,

Simply put, I do my best to keep errors of fact off the letters page; when one does run, a correction is published.  Saying “there’s no sign humans have caused climate change” is not stating an opinion, it’s asserting a factual inaccuracy.

No statement of an opinion, here.  Mm, mm.  Thornton is a newspaper man.  Each of his statements a Truth.

Here’s what Thornton is demonstrating with his censorship.  When someone is unable to make a coherent argument for his case, when he’s unable to concede the possibility of the error of his case, when he lacks the integrity to concede the possibility of that error, he does his best to prevent the opposing case from being spoken—either through ad hominem attacks against the opposing case’s presenters or, as Thornton does here with his control over speech, through outright censorship of the speech with which he’s unable to dispute coherently.

I can’t hear you, indeed.