The One Way Mirror Of The Media Around Climate Change

If you switch on just about any cable news network and find they are talking about Climate Change you can be sure that they have already got their minds made up and will treat the audience as dumb. The fact is that they see it as the science behind the investigation to 'Global Warming' is settled. So their is no need for them to question their own stance on the issue from time to time. This is why you have to go the extra yard to get the other side of the story.

On February 19th, Russell Cook publish an article at JunkScience.com where he acknowledges their three main talking points being: settled science / corrupt skeptics / media telling us only one side of the issue because there is no other legitimate side.


Here is his latest article:

Forget about the science of man-caused global warming for just a bit (it’s settled anyway). Skeptic scientists are corrupt. Don’t listen to them. Oh, for you reporters out there, no need to listen to them since they are corrupt, and the science is settled. Plus, dumber reporters already gave them too much equal time in the name of “journalistic balance”, a concept only applicable to situations where reasonable questions exist.

One more critical detail: Do not, under any circumstances, question anything in the prior paragraph. Nothing to see, move along, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

And there you have it, all of the books, movies, articles, and blogs pushing the idea of man-caused global warming are just extreme overkill on those three basic talking points: settled science / corrupt skeptics / media telling us only one side of the issue because there is no other legitimate side.

There is not one thing new about DeSmogBlog’s attack on the Heartland Institute; in fact, elements of it go all the way back to at least 1992, and one person has been involved in this throughout that entire stretch of time: anti-skeptic book author Ross Gelbspan.

Gelbspan has been the star blogger at DeSmogBlog for all but the first three months of its existence. Joe Romm over at ThinkProgress had this to say about him in his 2008, Kudos to DeSmogBlog, “Ross Gelbspan, whose defining books Boiling Point and The Heat is On were a big part of the inspiration for starting the DeSmogBlog….”

As I pointed out right here at JunkScience in December, Gelbspan’s accusation about skeptic climate scientists being no different from ‘shill experts’ working for big tobacco is based entirely on a leaked coal industry memo that is not only out-of-context, it was a rejected proposal for a PR campaign, was never actually implemented, and it most certainly was not any kind of top-down industry directive that he, Al Gore and so many others claim it is. I also pointed out there andearlier at ClimateDepot how Gore says Gelbspan discovered the memo, yet Gore had the memo collection in his Senate office years before Gelbspan first mentioned them.

This particular problem becomes all the more worthy of deeper investigation when anyone takes a look at one of Gelbspan’s last articles at the Boston Globe, May 31, 1992. His “To some, global warming may be only hot air” sidebar(h/t to Brenton Groves for his complete article PDF scan, complete original available for online purchase here) hints at questionable motives of skeptics, and he concludes with quotes from Stephen Schneider and Al Gore, respectively:

It is journalistically irresponsible to present both sides as if it were a question of balance. Given the distribution of views, with groups like the National Academy of Science expressing strong scientific concern, it is irresponsible to give equal time to a few people standing out in left field.

T]he overall weight of evidence” of global warming “is so clear that one begins to feel angry toward those who exaggerate the uncertainty.

Fascinating. There’s the first and third talking points. All they needed was some reason to say ‘skeptics are corrupt’. Also interesting to see how Gelbspan prominently features Fred Singer in that sidebar, who just happened to be embroiled in a libel suit at the same time concerning a situation that Gore was not the least bit pleased about. You see, Gore didn’t like the appearance of his mentor Roger Revelle changing his mind and co-authoring an article with Fred Singer, so that action had to be stopped at all costs. Dr Singer won the lawsuit.

And so it goes to this day, anybody who has the audacity to question the idea of man-caused global warming must be marginalized in the eyes of the public by any means possible. Perhaps it’s time for the victims of this endless smear to put aside the science for a while, and take a (legal action) ax to their accusers.