Group think on climate

The sound of lefty journalistic heads popping at the ABC can be heard for miles around. Their chairman,  Maurice Newman, has pilloried the media for its one-eyed stance on climate change:

Describing himself as an agnostic on climate change, Mr Newman said climate change was an example “of group-think where contrary views have not been tolerated, and where those who express them have been labelled and mocked”.

He warned ABC staffers that he would not tolerate anyone suppressing information, citing the fact that a BBC science correspondent knew for a month before the scandal broke of damaging emails at the University of East Anglia in Britain highlighting the politicised nature of climate science but did not report them.

Mr Newman said the Guardian newspaper had noted that the moment climatology is sheltered from dispute, its force begins to wane.

“Which raises an important question for a media organisation,” Mr Newman said in the speech obtained by The Australian. “Who, if anyone, decides what to shelter from dispute? And when?

“Should there be a view that the ABC was sheltering particular beliefs from scrutiny, or failing to question a consensus, I would consider it to be a dangerous perception that could lead to the public’s trust in us being undermined.”

The first of the lefty heads to pop were those of two committed global warming advocates (notice I don’t use the word “journalist”), Media Watch presenter Jonathan Holmes, and batty science reporter Bernie Hobbs (see here for an example of Bernie’s form). And then managing director Mark Scott “played down” his comments, using the offensive “D-word” as usual:

Sources said Holmes had told Mr Newman he was wrong to assert that sceptics were silenced on the ABC. Holmes declined to comment when contacted by The Australian. [Gee, I wonder why? – Ed]

ABC science journalist Bernie Hobbs also spoke, supporting Holmes’s view and saying the ABC could not give undue weight to the sceptics and thereby push a sceptics’ agenda.

Mr Scott is said to have tried to make the peace by playing down the importance of Mr Newman’s remarks.

Sources said while Mr Newman claimed publicly he was agnostic on the issue, he was a passionate climate-change denialist in private. Mr Newman has told journalists he doesn’t believe in the science of man-made climate change. (source)

All smoke and mirrors. And it won’t make the slightest bit of difference when you have people like Holmes, Hobbs, Robyn Williams in the frame. And the ABC is on good form this morning, plastering its broadcasts with a story about a Chinese official who claims climate sceptics are a bunch of crazy extremists (again, throwing in the “D-word” again just for good measure):

A deputy director of China’s most powerful economic ministry has come out swinging against climate change denial.

Senior Chinese government figures have described the view that climate change is not man-made as an “extreme” stance which is out of step with mainstream thought. (source)

Slightly at odds withChina’s policy of doing absolutely nothing to reduce its emissions, perhaps? The journalist hasn’t considered the possibility that if climate change were not manmade, then billions of dollars in climate debt would not have to flow from the West to developing countries any more… duh.

Certainly not my ABC

Of course, you fool. The Drum bangs the drum for the Lefties of this world, not the rest of us. So Clive Hamilton was allowed to spout unexpurgated drivel for five days, without a hint of censorship, because everything he says fits with the ABC’s left-wing, climate hysteric agenda. Bob Carter on the other hand is a filthy flat-earth, smoking-doesn’t-cause-cancer advocating, big-oil-funded, creationism-believing denier, so they must use all means to suppress his views. Carter’s article was critical of James Hansen, and guess what? Hansen’s in Melbourne right now. As Quadrant puts it:

We can only guess at the pressures which have been exerted on the ABC to close down criticism of Hansen – and the cowardice which saw them conform. So much for Australia’s brave freedom fighters of the press.

So go to this link and read what the ABC deemed was not appropriate for you to read. And spread it around.

Your Their ABC – Banging the Drum for the Left.

That’s the summary of another hopelessly biased piece on ABC’s The Drum (i.e. beating the drum for the Left), writing about balance in the media with respect to climate change. Jonathan Holmes is the oh-so-witty presenter of Media Watch and a confirmed climate alarmist. So we know which side of the fence this will be on. A few choice quotes:

What makes the issue more complicated than most is that the degree of scepticism in the community at large bears little relation to the degree of doubt that exists in the scientific community. Those who know the most are the least dubious that anthropogenic climate change is happening, and perhaps faster than they forecast just a few years ago.

In other words, if you don’t believe it, you’re just A STUPID BOGAN, got it? Then we have the inevitable cheap comparison between creationism and climate scepticism, starting off by claiming that the ABC doesn’t have to “balance” Richard Dawkins’ views on evolution:

Why not? Because creationism is espoused by rather few Australians, and therefore the ABC expects little demand for ‘balance’ on the topic? Or because the overwhelming scientific evidence does indeed support the ‘theory’ of evolution, as against intelligent design? Probably the former reason is far more important than the latter.

In other words, climate sceptics are really in the same camp as creationists, but because there are more of them in Australia than creationists, we at the ABC have to pander to their stupidity by giving a fake impression of “balance.” And he concludes:

But if I were running a science show on the ABC, I might well feel that what should guide me is the science, not shifts in popular opinion. And so far, for all the sound and fury, the vast majority of climate scientists remain convinced that the evidence for anthropogenic warming is getting stronger, not weaker, every year.

Hmm. I wonder what planet Holmes has been on for the last three months? Oh, I know. Planet ABC –  a left-wing elitist vacuum, isolated from reality.

Another great article from Your Their ABC.

Read it here.