ClimateGate Roundup: All the News Not Fit to Print

by Mike Flynn

A little known corollary of Copernican law tells us that, like the Earth, Big Media is also not, in fact, the center of the Universe. Just because the ‘journalists’ willfully choose to ignore ClimateGate–the proverbial tree falling in the enviro’s beloved rainforest–doesn’t mean the public and the political class aren’t paying attention. Of course, other than Barbara Boxer calling for criminal investigations into the hacked/leaked e-mails, it is mostly the political classes in other countries paying attention.  (If Boxer’s fantasy comes to pass and there are criminal charges pressed, how, pray tell, will Big Media report on it, since their readers presumably know nothing about the scandal.)

Fortunately, with the internet, we are no longer captive of Big Media for our news. The government-owned Canadian Broadcast Corporation, of all things, has been covering the controversy extensively. In this clip, noted commentator Rex Murphy lowers to guns to deck level on the scandal. It should be noted that Murphy is a former man of the left, having served in the leadership of the Liberal Party in Newfoundland.

And, over in Copenhagen, the Speaker of the Danish Parliament, Thor Pedersen, has issued a damning critique of the climate change debate. Money graph:

“The problem is that lots of people go around saying that the climate change we see is a result of human activity. That is a very dangerous claim,” Parliamentary Speaker and former Finance Minister Thor Pedersen (Lib) tells DR.

“Unfortunately I seem to experience that scientists say: ‘We have a theory’ – then that crosses the road to the politicians who say: ‘We know’. Who can be bothered to hear a scientist who says ‘I have a theory’ when politicians go around saying ‘I know’” Thor Pedersen says.

Spoken like, you know, the typical right-wing zealot the Danes are famous for being. And it isn’t just the Parliamentary Speaker raising doubts. Members of the Danish Prime Minister’s own Liberal Party are expressing doubts about new climate change legislation:

A mere three days before Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen moves into COP15 negotiating mode to reach a political agreement in Copenhagen, there is unrest on the issue in his own Liberal Party parliamentary group.

According to Berlingske Tidende, several members of the group told a group meeting yesterday, that the climate and energy debate has gone too far, and restricts personal freedoms to an unreasonable degree.

The reactions resulted in Group Chairman Hans Christian Schmidt postponing approval of one of the government’s own Bills, which is designed to further energy savings in housing.

Berlingske Tidende says that several members, led by Parliamentary Speaker and former Finance Minister Thor Pedersen said they were sceptical about the Bill, which would force those selling homes to provide energy labels for their houses.

Apparently, the Danes aren’t the only ones with new-found skepticism. You wouldn’t know this is you relied on Big Media for your news, but earlier this week the Australian Senate scuttled a sweeping climate change law that had been widely expected to pass. From the Financial Times:

Australia’s Senate voted down a planned emissions trading scheme yesterday, dashing last-ditch efforts by Kevin Rudd, prime min-ister, to have it enshrined in law before the Copenhagen conference.

The government will reintroduce the legislation to parliament for a third time in February but the defeat thwarts Mr Rudd’s hopes of taking the lead in global efforts on climate change.

The vote followed a political turnround on Tuesday when a new plain-spoken leader took over the main opposition party, pledging not to back the legislation. Tony Abbott said this year that the argument for climate change was “absolute crap” and that he was unconvinced by the science. But on Tuesday he played down the remarks as “a bit of hyperbole”.

With the collapsing business model of Big Media in this country, there has been increased chatter about a government bailout for the industry. This has sparked some legitimate concern about the power of the political classes to dictate the reporting of news stories by the dinosaur media. But would it really be any different than the situation today? The environment reporter for the New York “Pentagon Papers” Times came up with this howler for why the paper wouldn’t publish the emails:

The documents appear to have been acquired illegally and contain all manner of private information and statements that were never intended for the public eye, so they won’t be posted here.

Could Big Media actually be any more willfully ignorant of stories embarrassing to the political classes? At least if they were on the government dole, they might be more honest about their censoring of the news.

UPDATE: Based on several comments from readers, it seems I was misinformed about the extent of the CBC’s coverage of ClimateGate. Based on the quality and experience of our readers, I stand corrected. That said, the four minutes given over to Rex Murphy is exactly four minutes more than any of the US broadcast networks have devoted to this story. I also see tonight that Politico managed an extensive sit-down interview with Al Gore without bringing up ClimateGate, at all. (So…Mike Allen and John Harris, do you actually lose journalism points for not mentioning the 3,000 ton elephant in the room, or do you get to move to a bonus level for abetting Big Media’s coverup?) You would think most people would be curious about Climate Change’s biggest promotor/investor/entrepreneur/cheerleader’s take on the controversy. But then, most people aren’t “journalists” like Mr. Allen and Mr. Harris. Normally, I would link to their “story”, but I try to avoid linking to PR-flak press releases.


Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | | Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted Dec 4th 2009 at 1:53 pm in Environment, Media Criticism, News, Politics | 325 Comments