ABC bias exposed… yet again

11 May, 2011 by

Bias in its genes

Bias is in its genes. It is part of what makes the ABC what it is. A shameless pro-left wing editorial stance is standard fare for national broadcasters it seems – just look at the truly awful BBC. We often report on the ABC’s blatant bias towards climate alarmism (see here for a selection), helped by a staff of science writers who are fully paid up warmists (think Robyn Williams and Bernie Hobbs to name but two).

Now Gavin Atkins takes their gruesome snake pit of lefty thinking, The Drum, to task in The Australian:

The ABC opinion website is not compelled by editorial policies to demonstrate any form of balance but merely to provide a “range of subjects from a diversity of perspectives”.

At The Drum, one conservative opinion is all it requires to legitimise a dozen from the Left.

Take, for example, the death of Osama bin Laden. Since his death, Drum readers have been provided with pretty much the same opinion every day from a total of nine writers: it was an extrajudiciary killing; the US was working outside the rule of law; celebrations of his death were disgraceful.

One of these writers, Greg Barns, went so far as to appear on The Drum’s television show to express doubt that bin Laden was responsible for 9/11.

Two contributors were eventually published wishing good riddance to bad rubbish, enough for the ABC to claim it has provided a diversity of perspectives, and publish another brace of tales from the hand-wringers.

But it is ridiculous to assert, as the ABC’s chief executive Mark Scott did following the launch of the ABC’s editorial policies in 2006, that this fulfils an expectation that “audiences must not be able to reasonably conclude that the ABC has taken an editorial stand on matters of contention and public debate”.

The real measure of bias at The Drum is not the range of opinion, it’s the frequency. Until the end of last month, 98 writers had been published eight or more times at The Drum, producing a total of 1880 articles. Only eight of these contributors (one in 12) would pass muster as being on the right of the political spectrum: Glenn Milne, David Barnett, Chris Berg, Kevin Donnelly, Tom Switzer, John Hewson, Niki Savva and Sinclair Davidson.

Of these, Milne is first and foremost a journalist rather than an opinion writer, Hewson rarely expresses any conservative viewpoint, and others are specialists in areas such as education or economics rather than political issues of the day.

This means, for example, that of all the writers who are given a regular platform on the ABC website, I could find only four articles that were in some way supportive of Israel and none in favour of the war in Afghanistan.

By comparison, there are dozens of anti-Israel and anti-Afghan war pieces on the taxpayer-funded website, most of them accusatory and damning. For example, there are at least nine anti-Israel articles by Antony Loewenstein alone, 12 anti-Afghanistan war rants by Kellie Tranter, and many more from Labor Party speechwriter Bob Ellis scattered among his 110 contributions. (source)

Also check out Gavin’s article on Asian Correspondent for more.

Utterly shameful for a taxpayer funded national broadcaster to be guilty of such blatant pro-Left bias. But one thing is certain, nothing will change in a hurry.

Filed Under: ABC Bias Tagged With: ,

Failed climate gimmicks axed in budget

11 May, 2011 by

Gimmicks axed

Because anything Australia does unilaterally to “tackle climate change” is nothing more than a pointless gimmick, wasting money that could be spent on schools, medical research, housing – anything, in fact, rather than climate change.

WAYNE Swan has taken the razor to a raft of green programs, particularly those aimed at cutting emissions from coal consumption, and mopped up a string of failed green programs in a budget that, as expected, makes little mention of the impending carbon tax.

While carbon capture and storage have borne the brunt of the cuts, the government has moved to wind up failed programs such as Green Loans, the Home Insulation Safety Program and Green Start.

The cutback to the Carbon Capture and Storage Flagships program has been slated to provide $420 million of the $22 billion in savings measures announced in the budget. Of this, $260m has been deferred beyond the forward estimates.

The government has also delivered on its election promise, cutting funding for the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, one of former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s pet climate change programs [my hear. The cuts to the CCS Institute, which was charged with promoting the technology internationally, yield savings of $45m over two years from the next financial year.

Also cut was $12.8m over five years from the National Low Emissions Coal Initiative, which was designed to support the development and deployment of technologies to reduce emissions from coal use.

But it’s not all good news, as some of these savings will be wasted yet again:

But some of the savings from the cuts to the CCS Flagships program have been used to create a $60.9m National CO2 Infrastructure Plan, which will fund exploration of geological basins for long-term storage hubs and the acquisition of CO2 storage data in basins in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia.

The CO2 Infrastructure Plan will also help fund a National CO2 drilling rig deployment strategy and a national CO2 storage and transport infrastructure assessment.

What a relief. The world can sleep soundly knowing Australia now has a CO2 Infrastructure Plan…

Read it here.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: ,

BHP confused on carbon price

10 May, 2011 by

Confusion

BHP is tying itself in knots. Back in September 2010, it’s chief executive, Marius Kloppers, signed BHP’s own death warrant in Australia by backing a carbon price. Now, however, when a carbon tax is just around the corner, surprise surprise, they’re having second thoughts. Relying on the usual weasel words, its chairman thinks that Australia should take action on climate, as long as it doesn’t include BHP. In other words, I’m alright Jack, the rest of the country can go down the pan. How thoughtful.

But at least he makes the obvious point (obvious to everyone except the Gillard government, that is), that the rest of the world won’t follow Australia’s suicidal example:

BHP Billiton chairman Jacques Nasser has turned up the pressure on Julia Gillard to abandon plans for a carbon tax, calling for a “go-slow” approach to tackling climate change and warning that the rest of the world is unlikely to follow Australia’s lead.

Speaking in Melbourne yesterday, the chairman of Australia’s biggest company and the world’s biggest miner added to recent calls by his chief executive, Marius Kloppers, for a sector-specific approach to dealing with carbon pollution [harmless trace gas carbon dioxide – Ed] that did not hurt businesses that had global competitors.

…

Mr Nasser yesterday told a Melbourne Mining Club lunch that BHP Billiton still supported Australia moving early on climate change, but questioned the government’s plans and stressed the nation needed to remain competitive with other countries.

“In terms of a carbon tax, most countries around the world have decided to go in some other direction,” the BHP chairman said.

“Particularly in the larger economies, there’s been a trend towards regulation, rather than changing behaviour through taxation or policy changes.

“We’ve got to be careful we don’t get into the trap of really believing our behaviour is going to influence other countries; I don’t think that will be the case.” (source)

Will the government listen? Of course not. Their eyes and ears have been closed for years.

And a bonus item for you: the Greens, in the form of Bob Brown, have shown themselves once again to be utterly unfit to take part in a modern democratic government, by describing skilled migrants, skilled migrants, to Australia as “queue jumpers“. What does that make the illegal boat arrivals, Bob? Clearly rather than migrants who will add to Australia’s economy and prosperity, Brown and his idiot colleagues would rather have a bunch of unskilled Afghans arriving on a rickety fishing boat, who think they don’t have to go through the proper migration process like everyone else, and who will drain our economy by spongeing off taxpayer-funded benefits for the rest of their lives… but nothing the Greens say, no matter how ridiculous, surprises me anymore. What is surprising is that anyone takes them seriously.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With:

Delusional: Swan thinks "tide will turn" for carbon tax

9 May, 2011 by

Get his face off my monitor

In his dreams. The more people find out about the tax, and the fact that it will increase the price of everything for no benefit to the climate whatsoever, whether locally or globally, the more people will harden their opposition to it. But apparently not Wayne Swan, who believes (as usual) that it’s only a matter of time before the unwashed electorate come round to the political elite’s way of thinking:

Yesterday, as the Opposition Leader continued to attack the carbon tax, Mr Swan said he expected Labor’s stock to improve once the details of the tax were finalised in coming months.

“At the end of the day our job – we deal with some very tough economic and political issues,” he said in an interview with The Australian.

“There’s no way but just to keep going and get them done and wear it in the interim.”

He said there was “no other way” to deliver a carbon tax than that being pursued.

“We understand that we’ll cop stuff along the way because of that,” the Treasurer said.

“But there’s no alternative to it. The alternative to it is to do nothing. That’s terribly contrary to the country’s interests in the long term.” (source)

It’s actually quite funny (or it would be if it wasn’t so serious) to watch a politician twisting in the wind, trying to justify the unjustifiable. Maybe the big emitters will get together and agree a global deal in five or ten years time, in which case, Australia can join in then. There is nothing about the carbon tax that is in the country’s interests, whether short term or long term, unless there is global action. However, the longer that global action is delayed, the weaker the case for action will be, as temperatures and sea levels fail to rise as predicted, and people start asking “Is this Y2K all over again?”

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: ,

Lefty heads pop as Bolt Report airs on Ten

8 May, 2011 by

Andrew Bolt

Yes, laydeez and gennlemen, that is the sound of heads popping at the ABC and Fairfax as Andrew Bolt’s new show, The Bolt Report, premiered on Channel 10 a few minutes ago. In the first show, Andrew exposed Gillard’s hypocritical boat people policy, interviewed Tony Abbott, discussed Gillard’s future with Mark Latham and gave a Free Speech Award to Paul Keating for his description of Clover Moore’s supporters as “sandal wearing, muesli-chewing, bike riding pedestrians”. LOL! Although a “bike riding pedestrian” is a bit of an oxymoron…

Bolt asked Abbott how much his direct action climate policy would reduce the global temperature. Abbott didn’t answer… (because it’s square root of bugger all).

The show also revealed that the brainless lemmings at GetUp! paid $16,000 to give a refugee (helpfully wearing a GetUp! t-shirt) a surfing lesson with Tony Abbott. They really do have more money than sense.

Obviously, it was refreshing to have a current affairs show which wasn’t leaning so far to the Left that it was falling off the edge. A promising start, and congratulations on the new show.

Filed Under: Climate

Blog Poll results

8 May, 2011 by

Poll results

Thanks to all who voted in the blog poll on ACM’s web performance. Nearly 95% voted that pages loaded “very quickly” or “reasonably” quickly, with nearly two-thirds saying they loaded “very quickly”.

I apologise to the few that found the site loaded slowly, but I think the reason for that may be out of my control. So it appears the server is coping well at the moment, and a migration to another hosting provider is not required at this stage…

Thanks again, Simon

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With:

In desperation, wheel out the celebs

7 May, 2011 by

Wheeling out the celebs

The carbon tax is sinking faster than a Pacific island, so as a last ditched attempt to resurrect it, the Gillard government is wheeling out Cate Blanchett, talented actress and crazy environmental moonbat that she is. Oh, and just remember this is YOUR taxpayer dollars paying for this nonsense:

A WIDE-RANGING coalition of supporters of action on climate change is planning a massive campaign to rescue Julia Gillard’s carbon tax in the face of growing industry opposition.

The Weekend Australian understands Oscar-award winning actress Cate Blanchett has been approached to be part of a national advertising campaign.

But sources said it would be wrong to suggest the world-famous actress would be the spearhead of the campaign, which will also include a raft of “ordinary Australians”.

The Weekend Australian understands the planned print, radio and television campaign is being supported by groups including Get Up!, Greenpeace, the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Southern Cross Climate Coalition, a conglomerate including the ACF, the Climate Institute and the Australian Council of Trade Unions. (source)

What a truly hideous motley crew that lot is. The brainless lemmings of GetUp!, the eco-Nazis of Greenpeace and ACF, the pointless Climate Institute and a bunch of union thugs. Charming. Should put even more people off with a bit of luck.

Also, don’t forget to check out Jo Nova’s op-ed piece in The Australian here.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With:

NT passes 50-year carbon tax exemption

6 May, 2011 by

Carbon tax exclusion

At least the Northern Territory isn’t as dumb as the rest of Australia. They’re bailing out of a carbon tax before it has even been introduced!

An opposition motion in the NT Legislative Assembly, which was passed “on the voices”, calls for a half-century exemption, which would be relaxed in the event of an international deal on cutting carbon emissions.

The motion will be presented to federal parliament for the consideration of MPs ahead of debate on Labor’s final carbon tax proposal.

The Country Liberal Party motion was passed on Wednesday night after crossbench independent Gerry Wood spoke in its support.

Chief Minister Paul Henderson’s minority Labor government would have needed the support of a Labor defector, independent Alison Anderson, to win a vote on the floor.

Rather than seek her support, the government let the motion pass “on the voices”.

The federal opposition seized on the move, with climate action spokesman Greg Hunt saying support for the carbon tax had collapsed among state Labor branches.

And Tony Abbott said the carbon price was a “toxic tax” and the NT resolution followed a global movement against carbon taxes.

“Right around the world, the tide is going against what Julia Gillard is proposing. We’ve just seen an election in Canada which gave an anti-carbon price government a majority, and that’s the first time they’ve had a majority government in Canada for quite a long time,” the Opposition Leader said.

But the best bit is Combet’s desperate attempt to make the Territory feel “guilty” for betraying the planet, and his false logic on the issue:

“The Gillard government is very conscious of the impacts of climate change and a carbon price in the Northern Territory.

“The NT is particularly vulnerable to climate change. Rising temperatures could see the loss of significant freshwater wetlands in Kakadu National Park, which would hurt the Territory’s tourism industry, and there are other risks for the Territory from climate change.

Except a carbon tax in Australia won’t change any of these things! If you believe that CO2 is causing dangerous warming, then you should be speaking to the US, China and India, because they’re the only ones that would make any difference.

Read it here.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: ,

Daily Bayonet GW Hoax Weekly Roundup

6 May, 2011 by

Skewering the clueless

As always, a great read!

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With:

Newspoll's questions mislead the media

5 May, 2011 by

Dodgy wording

In the same poll that showed support for Julia Gillard’s carbon tax at a laughable 30%, it has been reported that over 70% of voters believe climate change is man-made. This is a gift to Labor, since they can point to that and say “Look, people believe man-made climate change is real, but (unlike us) they don’t want to take the tough decision and do something about it.”

Here is the Newspoll question (PDF here):

DO YOU PERSONALLY BELIEVE THAT CLIMATE CHANGE IS…?*

  • entirely caused by human activity: 14%
  • partly caused by human activity: 58%
  • TOTAL CAUSED BY HUMAN ACTIVITY: 72%

Now even I, as a writer of a climate sceptic blog, would have to be included in that 72% (actually the 58%), because I consider that man has a partial effect on the climate, like virtually everything else on the planet: plants and animals and buildings and cities etc etc. We can live with a modest 1 degree of warming – there may even be benefits from that warming, and from the increased CO2 concentration in the atmosphere.

So the question that should have been asked is whether people believe that the effect that man has on climate is dangerous and requires action to reverse that effect. In other words, that the modest warming from increased CO2 is amplified by positive feedbacks (as the models would have you believe) into something that is dangerous.

I would bet the figure would be closer to the 14% that believe natural climate change doesn’t exist (the hardcore “natural climate change deniers” who apparently haven’t heard of Ice Ages) than the 72% figure quoted in the media.

And that must be the more important figure – if people, like me, believe that climate change is partly man-made, but that the magnitude of the change caused by man is small and does not require action to reverse it, then a carbon price is similarly not required.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With:
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