Quality journalism
Some great articles on Fakegate (the Heartland document release) from around the blogosphere (illustrated by Josh).
Should we be surprised that the main document referred to at the Big-Green-funded smear blogs was a fake? No. Faking stuff is what the headbangers do:
The New York Times article is a case study in bad journalism and bias on a scale for which this failing newspaper is renowned. The Times reported that “Leaked documents suggest that an organization known for attacking climate science is planning a new push to undermine the teaching of global warming in public schools, the latest indication that climate change is becoming part of the nation’s culture wars.”
Wrong, so wrong. Polls have demonstrated that global warming is last on a list of concerns by the public. It barely registers because the public has concluded that it is either a hoax or just not happening. Teaching global warming in the nation’s schools constitutes a crime against the truth and the students.
What the Heartland documents show is how badly warmists have been beaten by those with a fraction of the resources they’ve enjoyed.
Al Gore spent $300 million advertising the global warming hoax. Greenpeace, the WWF, the Sierra Club, The Natural Resources Defense Council, NASA, NOAA, the UN and nation states have collectively poured billions into climate research, alternative energies and propaganda, supported along the way by most of the broadcast and print media.
Yet they’ve been thwarted by a few honest scientists, a number of blogs and a small pile of cash from Heartland.
Here’s a clue for DeSmog, Joe Romm and other warmists enjoying a little schadenfreude today. It’s not the money that’s beating you, it’s the message.
So when it is shown that the ‘primary’ leaked Heartland document with the main message is a complete forgery, where are the media reporters now? Where are the retractions? How about a simple investigation of the headers?
In the same place that the nefarious act of publishing the NOAA temperature data is. In the circular bin or the janitorial closet of the New York Times where it won’t see the light of day. There is no need to apologize to conservative groups after all, only to groups that push the correct politics like Media Matters or GreenPeace.
Much of the stink over these documents are from people like Huffington Post’s Shawn Lawrence Otto whose major point of emphasis is that Heartland is biased towards their own point of view. Well, this is true. This is not of course proof that this point of view is false, though. It is no different than saying that Greenpeace screeds (i.e. press releases) are biased towards their point of view. And yet we never hear arguments like this.
I find it amusing. The Heartland Institute has organized several conferences of climate skeptics and everyone who observes the debate at least at a superficial level must know that the folks in the think tank are skeptics and they have some – modest – amount of money to be used.
Only fringe lunatic save-the-Earth-by-killing-everyone-but-me types could really believe that any organization would actually promote “dissuading teachers from teaching science”. The person who wrote this obviously fraudulent Heartland goal clearly knows little about science or what kind of organization Heartland is.
That so many media outlets (especially the Guardian) ran with the story without checking its veracity is another black eye for what passes as journalism these days.
I know Joe Bast, the president and CEO of Heartland. He is of the highest character and intelligence, and I would consider his motives on the climate subject to be at or above anyone I have met in this business, on either side of the issue.
James Delingpole (who coined the phrase “Fakegate”):
Ready for your amazing fact, fruit loop eco-loons?
OK. Here goes.
We climate realists don’t think of ourselves as anti-science.
No, really. We think we’re pro-science. That’s what we want science teachers to teach kids in schools: hard science – physics, chemistry, biology. Stuff that’s empirical. Theories that are falsifiable. Not the kind of junk science they teach in places like the school of “environmental” “science” at comedy institutions like the “University” of East Anglia. Because that’s not science at all. It’s computer-modelling, projection, which is more akin to necromancy.
So, next time you try to fake your Protocols of the Elders of Climategate document, guys, at least try to credit the people you’re trying to smear with a bit of integrity. Not everyone is like you, you realise?
The hypocrisy is flagrant. The Sierra Club listed a category for $1,000,000 donations by “anonymous donors” in their 2010 annual report. Strangely DeSmog didn’t froth with anticipation. Their Sierra Club annual report mentions “Matching Gifts”, and apparently supporters who matched gifts include the evil Exxon, not to mention GoldMan Sachs, Barclays, Google, Monsanto, Nestle, Yahoo, Bank of America, and many many more. But that’s alright then.
Jo Nova (again):
In the hours after the ClimateGate emails were released, skeptics asked about their authenticity (as we are want to do). In the hours after the Heartland Documents (including at least one complete fake) were released, the commentators on the other side did not even ask (just as they uncritically accept any weak report in favour of their pet theory).
They leapt to their defamatory conclusions in a smear-fest. At least one person out there has probably committed a criminal act. The rest are guilty of small brained unskeptical blind hatred, defamation, and ignorance. And will any of them apologize? I’ll be shocked if even one has the decency or manners.
We should not allow them to forget it. DeSmog=DeSmear. They are a group happy to promote lies with no compunction. They are not interested in the truth, just in the PR. Oh the fool journalists who think the paid hacks at DeSmog ever had anything to say on science that was not biased or deceitful. Richard Littlemore, where is your apology?
All the above evidence, plus Heartland’s statement saying it is a fake, taken in total suggest strongly that the “2012 Climate Strategy” document is a fake. From my perspective, it is almost if the person(s) looking at these said “we need more to get attention” and decided to create this document as the “red meat” needed to incite a response.
Indeed, the ploy worked, as there are now 216 instances (as of this writing) of this document title “Confidential Memo: 2012 Heartland Climate Strategy” on Google at various news outlets and websites.
Australian Climate Madness 
[Edit – There are allegations that] Peter Gleick is the author of the fake “Confidential Memo”. At Lucia’s The Blackboard, Steven Mosher posted numerous comments pointing to Gleick as the author of the fake memo. Please read other comments too. I think Steven Mosher is right. What is your opinion?
Just to remind you, Peter Gleick reviewed book by Donna Laframboise “The Delinquet Teenager” without reading it.
[REPLY: Too early to say. I’m keeping an open mind at this stage – thanks for the tip, however – Lucia’s post is here – Simon]
Simon, thank you for editing my comment. Here, in USA, free speech is the cornerstone of democracy and words like alleged and allegations are never used in comments, be it bloggs or newspapers. I apologize for not remembering, that this is an Australian blog.
Something of interest; the name Fakegate (not FakeGate) is becoming official – more hits on Bing and Google over denier gate.
[REPLY – No worries!]
Great Post! Unfortunately the real deniers – those who deny the latest science from people like Bob Carter and Heartland’s NIPCC – will still believe the lies from the fake document
MeDogsGob went viral on 22 November 11 over the release of the stolen Climategate 2.0 emails:
“Remember that this was an illegal hacking of emails, and this second batch represents a continued breach of privacy of these scientists whose personal emails were released to the public. The UK police investigation into the hacking is still ongoing, and this new episode should compel them to redouble their efforts to find out who these criminal hackers are, and bring them to justice.”
Meanwhile, MeDogsGob’s outrage over the stolen Heartland emails is here:
“The Heartland Institute has confirmed in a prepared statement that it mistakenly emailed its board materials to an anonymous third party …”
The Heartland documents weren’t stolen, there was no fraud involved and nothing illegal took place … it was Heartland’s fault, as they emailed the documents by ‘mistake’.
Sorry that link above should direct to this: 22 November 11.
Hopefully the old adage will apply to the group think Greenie/Warmie movement cheats. IF YOU ARE GOING TO TELL LIES MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BRILLIANT MEMORY FIRST.