discreditation
i heard someone refer to the hockey stick as discredited. as if it were all complete garbage that you should just toss out and ignore. heh. you wish. far from it. the shape of the hockey stick was never seriously questioned. it's the conclusions that were legitimately challenged. the authors originally claimed a much higher confidence level for the assertion that the 1980's were the hottest decade in a million years. they represented it as quite certain. whereas upon further review plausible would be a better choice of words.