Well, it finally happened. Much of Canadian media broke radio silence on Climategate today. There really wasn’t much choice but to report it, now that Environment Minister Jim Prentice had officially described the allegations as “serious”, coupled with the day-old news that CRU head Phil Jones was “stepping aside” in preparation for his encounter with a double-decker.
As of this evening, there are 23,100,000 Google results for “climategate” – and exactly one on-air report from the CBC.
It’s been 14 days since the cork was pulled from FOIA 2009.zip
And as it turns out, the concerted efforts of a protective mainstream media to ignore the scandal turned out to be worst possible course of events for the University of Anglia’s motley CRU and their supporters in the wealth distribution industry.
They gave us something very powerful – 14 days of time. Time, while scores of bloggers and thousands of readers put in uncountable man hours of dissection and analysis.
Time for those who’d been discussed and copied in the leaked emails to confirm that there was no evidence of tampering.
Time for programmers to sift through Harry’s now famous code line by line, to test it for themselves.
Time for members of the academic community to get their outrage and condemnation on the record, and on their own terms. Time for those who’d been targeted to retell their stories.
Time for opinion columnists and talk radio to break ranks and take on the job their news editors refused to do, to disseminate the facts gathered, checked and analyzed by bloggers to a wider audience.
Time for the comments sections of every online newspaper in the western world to fill with angry demands from their readers to cover the damned story. Not because they were needed anymore, but because we wanted the stupid charade to end.
So when Peter Mansbridge went on the National tonight to admit what he had surely known for days, we didn’t watch to find out what’s contained in FOIA 2009.zip, for we’d read it for ourselves.
We only watched to see if he had.
For perhaps the first time in the history of mass media, the gatekeepers broke a major scandal to an audience fully 10 days ahead of them.
It’s a spin doctor’s worst nightmare.
As I’ve been saying from the beginning, they’re hearing the sound of all hell breaking loose. And as much as it’s being directed at the research institutions and the policy makers following along like so many imprinted penguins, the bulk of public rage has focused on the media.
I don’t think my friends in traditional news gathering truly appreciate what it is they’ve done. I don’t believe they fully comprehend how gravely they have injured themselves, and how they’re driving home the razor into an industry already struggling for survival with abbreviated, dismissive, misleading reports and “denier” and “conspiracy nut” slurs.
The bloggers tried to warn them. The opinion columnists tried to warn them, the talk hosts tried to warn them. Their readers, viewers and listeners tried to warn them.
The news media perfected the business of bombshells. They wind them up, drop them, film the explosion, and move on.
They’re just learning now that we’re in the business of bottle genies.
It would appear that we (in the West) owe a debt of gratitude to those faceless Russians who hacked the site and exposed the fraud. Let’s not forget those guys. Can we put them up for an Order of Canada?
favill
I have no doubt that Peter Mansbridge knew about the CRU leak the morning thereafter, for the media have their handlers and web readers, too.
I conducted a little experiment in my home and amongst my friends, though. Up until yesterday I purposely remained silent about this fiasco, wanting to see how long it would be before my wife piped up about the controversy. She spends quite a bit of time daily reading news and opinion on the web and I figured it would be a matter of a couple days at most before she’d happen on something. By yesterday, hearing nothing about it from my wife, I broke down and asked if she had heard of the CRU leak or climategate. She confessed she hadn’t read or heard a single thing. Some of my friends sent me emails about it, all of them pointing to blogs, unsurprisingly.
I say this to to remind us there is a real possibility that the general public in Canada — those who primarily get their news through evening and nightly broadcasts, like CTV or CBC, or via their websites — are still completely in the dark about what has happened and the ramifications on policy decisions both past and present.
That, my friends, is why I damn the media in this regard, as in others. They have failed to duly inform the public of a major scandal that threatens to produce policy that will impact their pocketbooks and their lives for the foreseeable future.
There is work still to be done.
In the meantime, Kate, you’ve done an excellent job of staying on top of the action, pulling together the relevant links and appending commentary to them. This blog is becoming a conservative aggregator. Thank you. We are indebted.
I received the same CBC form letter.
I responded by warning her to make sure she could prove no emails have been erased from her account because i will be demanding a Public Inquiry into Corruption in the CBC.
Demand the CBC face a Public Inquiry. Hiding important news from Canadians because it doesn’t suit their personal political beliefs.
Start filing FOI requests for the Ombudsman’s emails with Peter Pansbridge
Nice Post!!
The Fix: The MSM “fixed their story” story.
“the story was severely edited.”
The MSM fixes their story on behalf of the AGW fraudsters.
The Smoking MSM’s Fix.
“The UN’s World Meteorological Organisation – a parent of the IPCC – was also in touch. It shared its statement with us about the BBC’s report. And here it is:
>>> “Just wanted to point out a few other outlets that fixed their story, including Fox, after we approached them,” their PR mailed us.”
…-
“The BBC, the UN, and climate bullying”
“The Beeb’s Roger Harrabin had noted remarks made by the chief of the UN weather quango, concluding that “…this would mean global temperatures have not risen since 1998, prompting some to question climate change theory”.
Big mistake, Roger.
Harrabin initially stood by his words, but shortly after an eco-warrior made a threat to humiliate him before the Court of The Hive Mind (“I am about to send your comments to others for their contribution, unless you request I do not. They are likely to want to post your comments on forums/fora, so please indicate if you do not want this to happen. You may appear in an unfavourable light”) the story was severely edited.
We’ve a couple of updates for you.
Firstly, Ms Abbess (who declined to respond to our request for comment) wasn’t alone in demanding – and getting – changes to the story. The UN’s World Meteorological Organisation – a parent of the IPCC – was also in touch. It shared its statement with us about the BBC’s report. And here it is:
“Just wanted to point out a few other outlets that fixed their story, including Fox, after we approached them,” their PR mailed us.
[Fox – Mail] “So you know, BBC and Roger Harrabin’s TV piece that accompanied the text story was accurate and informed, and at the same time we found Mr Harrabin very willing to resolve any factual issues in his story. I would urge anyone to read his story as it appears now.”
This is a little unusual. In the shadowy world of “media influencers”, PRs rarely crow about journalists being compliant. Even when PRs score a total victory and force a complete about-face, it’s still not considered good manners to gloat – unless the intention is to humiliate the hack or hackette.
Roger Harrabin has also posted a statement on the BBC News Online’s Editors Blog, which you can read here.
The comments make for interesting reading. One points out that the changes demanded (and made) by the WMO simply obfuscate the issue. The WMO throws in lots of detail about predictions of hotness, which sort of, kind of, obscure the (empirical) fact that things aren’t getting hotter at all.”
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/15/bbc_global_notwarming_mailbag/
So now tell me that Harper isn’t going to go to Copenhagen and sign any global warming scam, surely not before he investigates the hacked CRU emails and date deletions. Tell me he won’t sign, not before he investigates the carbon trading scams surfacing on the net. Which will not surface on the CBC. Ever. They will be too busy dealing with the cognitive dissonance between being journalists and eco-propagandists saving the planet.
Well well Atric (see comment Dec 3 5:15 AM)– I received the same letter, word for word, after my remarks to the Ombudsman.
I love the smell of AGW burning in the morning!
And to know that a scheme hatched a generation ago, carefully tended and cultivated by some powerful shady characters, lies now in a smoldering heap.
I then wrote Ms Enkin this:
(PS no hyperlinks come through but then the readers of SDA don’t need them except here or there where I have put them back in)
Dear Ms Enkin
Thank you for your reply which is much fuller than I expected.
You say (and I just read it — I confess that I don’t pay any attention to the CBC) your first story appeared on 26 November. The story, I fear, is straight journo school pap: this happened, he said, she said.
And it’s late both in time and in content.
As you say, “we should have noticed the story and picked it up sooner than we did”. Indeed. I first noticed the story on the blog https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/ on the 20th, one week earlier. And she was not the first to cover the story.
But your first report was also late in content: it was not just the just e-mails that were the revelation on the 26th.. Analysts around the globe had got into the file Harry_Read_me which showed a severely corrupted program, bad data and that bad data then fiddled to fit the assumed conclusion. For example, please see this.
Furthermore, your story refers to the “trick” and “hide the decline” but gives only Jones’ explanation. But the “trick” to “hide the decline” had already been exposed 6 days earlier.
So, altogether I have three observations: you were a week late on the story and were beaten flat by the blogosphere. You were not, of course, alone on this and neither has this been the first time that the MSM has come last to the story (NYT and ACORN, for a recent example).
Secondly, when you finally did report the story, the content was late: for example Small Dead Animals referred to the Harry file on the 23rd but your story was still just about the e-mails. Which are bad enough, but the Harry file is devastating to the AGW cause. These two kinds of lateness are one of the important reasons for the decline of the MSM; in many cases the readers know more than the writers (a fine example here).
[http://www.economist.com/node/14960149/comments]
Third, your writer appears to have done no research of his own other than phoning a few people (but only believers in AGW as it turns out) to get quotes. By the 26th, there was a huge amount of information out there – including the files themselves – that the reporter could have looked at. But lack of actual research is, again, another reason why the MSM is dying.
As to “Of course, we cannot include all, or even many, of the stories taking place around the country and the world.” True enough, but surely something that calls into question what has been a very big theme of your (and others’) output for many years, something that will potentially cost billions, is of no slight significance. Perhaps even more than this story. [http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2009/11/21/jackson-glove-auction.html}
Nonetheless, I look forward to following (via the blogosphere) your coverage. With, one hopes, less of the “the science is solid” mantra. The CRU material butresses a strong prima facie case for 1) subversion of the peer review process 2) hiding raw data 3) bad computer programs 4) dodgy data 5) cooking. This particular science is not solid at all. As George Monbiot (a noted proponent of AGW) said, three days before your first story: “It’s no use pretending that this isn’t a major blow”. It’s a very big story and it should be front page stuff for a long time.
Indeed, given that they figure prominently in the e-mails, and are Canadians, why don’t you give Steve McIntyre or Ross McKitrick some space? After all, at the moment, they are looking pretty prescient.
And don’t you think that “award winning journalists” [http://www.zoominfo.com/people] might have wondered why the files were given the name they were?
“We couldn’t report fully on it because we carried these idiot’s water for too long. It would have made us look like the fools we are.
Sincerely,
Esther Enkin
Executive Editor
CBC News
Box 500, Station “A”,
Toronto, Ontario
M5W 1E6
Posted by: atric at December 3, 2009 5:15 AM”
FIFY
There’s very little being said about the whistleblower. East Anglia doesn’t seem worried that their system has been compromised. I would expect them to be freaking out if it was a hacker.
Do you have a feeling that the MSM is mandated to be ignorant? Even if they do lead insultated leftwing-nut lives, they have to have some sensible people in their inner circles/family that are screaming bloody murder at them!
Or maybe the they are just waiting for “Net Neutrality” to be enacted in so they won’t have to deal with pesky right wing bloggers, radio hosts etc. who speak the truth.
Good work Kate. Keep yelling from every roof top you can find!
And those of us who have this knowledge will have to continue to do our best to educate others in the media, government and general public. Someone has to, the big news corporations aren’t doing their job!
“…the story’s significance seemed only gradually to emerge”
Bwaaaahhhaahahaha!
In other news we found a rifle in the book depository but we haven’t ascertained it’s significance.
bleet took the “no proof there is a God either” argument from Eleanor Clift. Blind faith indeed.
See the clip at newsbusters,by Jeff Poor,Nov 29.
re: the Mclaughlin Report
Later in the show, Buchanan reiterated his point that global warming wasn’t going on and said there was no proof that any of the warming that has occurred in recent history was caused by man.
“It was warming, John,” Buchanan said. “It’s not been warming since ’98. Secondly, there’s no known proof it’s because of man and there’s no known proof it’s a great danger.”
However, Clift felt inclined to responded, rather emphatically. She said she believes U.S. policy should be proactive toward the issue. Her view is arguably indicative of the mainstream media’s sentiment on the debate, and she equated it to blind faith when she told Buchanan there’s no proof there’s a God either, which didn’t mean global warming wasn’t a danger.
I fully agree Kate.
The MSM have really painted themselves into a corner , and no amount of lies and obfuscation will get them out of it.
Because the MSM is primarily populated with socialist left journalists , most of whom have never contributed anything other than pessimism and social bent , they blindly followed the Global Warming hoax.
Now the Global Warming has been exposed as a complete fraud they , the MSM , who have never apparently had to think logically for themselves , are at a loss as to what to do !
It will be wonderful to watch these idiot twist and squirm and I hope more than a few of the MSM will go broke as a result … it would be a nice contribution to the environment for the likes of the Star to be reduced to printing a one page edition !
There’s only one solution to all this – ban the internet.
Awesome post, Kate.
It is interesting that most MSM outlets refer repeatedly to “the stolen e-mails” in this case, when they never use such phrasing in describing the flow of illegal leaks that compromised the US counter-terrorism programs or any other thefts that find their way to their offices.
You only have to imagine how differently the MSM would have reacted if confidential emails from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency had been exposed that displayed the kinds of shenanigans that the folks at CRU were engaging in. When Gerry Ritz made one offhand comment about Wayne Easter during the listeria outbreak, that comment got leaked to the MSM in milliseconds and dominated the airwaves for days. The Climategate story is all about double standards.
Canadian MSM has been pimping Suzuki / Gore propaganda for years now.
They are complicit in the warmist hysteria / fraud.
Taking two weeks to carry a hint of the story of scientists’ fraudulent numbers.
They are an abomination to the noble “Fourth Estate” of yore.
CBC is a disgusting taxpayer-leech, agenda driven black hole of leftists.
The only difference between CTV Globemedia and CBC is that CTV is purported to be privately funded.
The agenda is the same all leftist all the time.
Without a doubt Kate McMillan’s SDA blog IS the leader in outing the corrupt “Mann-made Global warming” as well as outing Canadian MSM.
SO who will carry the rotten Copenhagen one world carbon scam to Canadians?
It will not be Canadian MSM, you can bet the farm on that one.
Give Lorne Gunter and Lorrie Goldstein a tip of the hat for their efforts, sadly their efforts should have been on the front pages of their respective employers papers more particularly as editorials!
The lefties and warmists are out in full force in the National Post this morning. A few articles could use a little more balance.
Unfortunately, while Prentice did use the words “serious allegations”……..he also insisted AGW is real and we must act:
“It does not change the position of Canada … The science overall is relatively clear on all of this and as a conservationist and as a responsible environmental steward Canada wants to see carbon emissions reduced.”
SO who will carry the rotten Copenhagen one world carbon scam to Canadians?
It sounds like Senator Inhofe and his “truth squad” will be carrying the message to Copenhagen.
I wonder what makes Prentice to qualify for issuing verdicts regarding climate science. Sounds all too familiar: science is settled, science is solid, science is clear. Puke on them. If this is a conservative, what should we expect from the liberals? Gas chambers for anyone exhaling CO2?
The use of word ‘carbon’ as in ‘carbon emissions’ is also very subtle. It leaves impression of black smokes coming out of diesel engine exhausts, like in ‘soot’.
Who would oppose that? CO2 is the same gas used in pop, that won’t fly.
AGW industry obviously hired the best psychologists for their advertising campaign.
I love this idea for a green party poster: ‘every time you open a can of pop, polar bear cub drowns!’ ROFLMAO
Sen. Inhofe has his work cut out for him. Says Ms. Barbara Boxer (D-Mars), from the Hill:
“You call it ‘Climategate’; I call it ‘E-mail-theft-gate,'” she said during a committee meeting. “Whatever it is, the main issue is, Are we facing global warming or are we not? I’m looking at these e-mails, that, even though they were stolen, are now out in the public.”
“We may well have a hearing on this, we may not. We may have a briefing for senators, we may not,” Boxer said. “Part of our looking at this will be looking at a criminal activity which could have well been coordinated.
“This is a crime,” Boxer said.
Now, Ms. Boxer is not talking about the massive, irresponsible, and coordinated fraud discovered at East Anglia. She’s talking about the actions of the person who made this knowledge public.
As I said in other places, I will scrape together what I can for a defense fund for the individual who blew the whistle on the fraud of the environmental movement.
Green on the outside, red on the inside, folks. The Dems are PO’d that one of their avenues to turning the American citizen into a subject of King Barack is slipping away. Watch for more anger – not at the fraud, but at the person who exposed it. They are now Public Enemy #1 according to the enviro-nutjobs.
Patrick and Fred.
I’m not in the least surprised. I feel a certain amount schadenfreude, however small, from knowing we are causing them to actually come up with an excuse, no matter how lame it is.
Brava, “young-earth creationist”! (Remarkable achievement for an agnostic)
At first, it was a trifle worrying. How could any real scientist be that dishonest and indifferent to real science, and be so incautious as well? It just looked too easy. I suppose the key word is real.
Now, I can’t begin to stay abreast of all the developments. You must have more than 24 hours in a day. How does it feel to be in the van of a truly earth-shaking story?
As for Prentice: “It does not change the position of Canada … The science overall is relatively clear on all of this and as a conservationist and as a responsible environmental steward Canada wants to see carbon emissions reduced.” Those words just don’t cut it. Maybe his name should really be ‘Prentice.
So for two weeks these fools covered up ClimatGate while they tried to manufacture an Afghanistan scandal by smearing the reputation of our troops.
CBC covered every moment of the fake scandal, even breaking into live TV with breathless reports of more third hand reports of maybe something that someone thought they heard. Anything to smear PMSH, the government and the troops.
CBC covered nothing of ClimateGate, a real scandal, with real evidence and real significance.
After all, if the scientific foundation of global warming is fraud, then there is no need to reorganize teh global economy and needlessly spend $Trillions of dollars.
I just sent an email to the PMO demanding a full Public Inquiry into corruption and fraud at CBC News.
CBC News . . . telling Canadians only news they want to get, not the news of what is really going on.
PUBLIC INQUIRY . . . NOW!
Ramon, I have mentioned this before regarding Prentice. The conservative government has little choice but to support the “official” consensus. Were they to speak out against it, the entire Canadian MSM would be all over them about it. They would be slandered as “knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, creationist believing science deniers”. The opposition would immediately trigger an election over it. And as we have already seen south of the border, even though the MSM is dying a slow death, they can still influence the voters enough to win an election with an unqualified candidate. Do you really want Iggy and Rae running things?
I certainly hope that our environment minister does not become the devil’s apPRENTICE.
Kate, your analysis is exceptional.
The enormous data base that Kate has compiled and provided over several years, not just the recent data about the emails and codes, is clear empirical evidence that the AGW/climate change thesis is a scam. Its conclusions of AGW are unsubstantiated by empirical evidence.
But AGW, as a scam, is a shield, a cover for the real agenda, which is a socialist transfer of wealth from the industrial wealth to so-called ‘developing countries’. I say ‘so-called’ because these countries include China and India, which have massive populations heavily involved in industrial development. The agenda is also to reduce the West as an industrial power. Envy.
This isn’t a transfer of billions to Zimbabwe and its ‘back-to-the-pre-industrial-agenda’; this is big time industrial development in China and India. Paid by the West – not as loans but as Sin Money. For having industrialized FIRST, before these countries did. Think about it.
Such a mindset is saying that industrialism is inevitable, genetic, and that those who got there first should feel guilty about it. This ignores that industrial devt is not innate but due to the West’s hard work of enabling freedom of thought, innovation, technological development, science and reason. That kind of stuff. And we ought to feel proud of it. Not guilty – as AGW is asserting.
BUT – since AGW is not about the environment or climate but is about MONEY – then, what will this socialist agenda do to achieve its goal, of getting money from the West? How will they deal with it, since their AGW cover is starting to unravel?
Oh – and for those who are chastizing Harper etc re going to Copenhagen, I think we ought to remember that We Who Are Smart And Know The Truth aren’t the only ones in Canada – and there are still a majority who believe, fervently, in the Sin of AGW. A politician has to work with both sides. I think Harper has made clear his view that AGW is an economic scam – and we can trust him to deal with it…just as Ausralia has also stood up and rejected cap and trade.
> Were they to speak out against it, the entire Canadian MSM would be all over them about it.
That’s what they’ve been elected for – speaking out and acting against fraud, abolishing the registry and keeping a lid on spending.
Now you are saying they should let all that continue for the sake of good publicity. Holy shit, with friends like that who needs enemies?
Prentice is a Joe Clark clone. expect nothing more.
ET: +1
Like the good fellow Dak’kon used to say: ‘This is Abyss, but it reeks of Mechanus’
James Hansen was interviewed today by a South African newspaper, the Mail & Guardian. Here’s what he had to say about climategate:
“Hansen admitted the controversy could shake the public’s trust, and called for an investigation. “All that stuff they are arguing about the data doesn’t really change the analysis at all, but it does leave a very bad impression,” he said.”
To suggest that climategate leave a “bad impression” may be the understatement of the year, but at least Hansen displays a sense of honesty that the other players in the climategate scandal lack.
The article also points out that Hansen would prefer to see the Copenhagen talks fail rather than result in a cap-and-trade system, which he vehemently opposes, but of course not for any of the reasons that climate change skeptics would.
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-12-03-top-scientist-warns-over-copenhagen-talks
Posted by: ron in kelowna ∴ at December 3, 2009 2:33 AM
Sorry, Ron. Jim Hansen is not a convert to reality. He’s against Hopecavin because they are not going to come up with anything sufficiently drastic.
He wants us all to die.
Trust me, he is NOT our friend
Well, it’s taken some time, but we’re starting to see the masses jumping off the ‘Copenwagon’.
Great post Kate! Right on the money. One of your very best. That’s one to frame and put on the wall.
Peter Fairybridge, CBC and MSM all got caught asleep again. While here at SDA, Kate never sleeps!
Kate, your posts have been simply amazing, articulate, witty and the list goes on. We all Thank you big time for realizing the enormity of this story.
Aaron, please pay attention. They are a MINORITY government. If the opposition parties think they can hammer the conservatives in an election, they will pull the plug INSTANTLY. And with the MSM clearly hoping and praying and actively trying to find ANYTHING with which the opposition can run with, it would not be in their best interests to speak up now. The AGW case is quickly unraveling, so there’s no reason for Harper to risk an election that could potentially put the Libs back in power. Tell me how pissed off you’d be if Harper said “AGW is a scam”, the opposition called an election, and with the help of the MSM the Liberals won?
Google “Climategate” 27.5 million hits
Google “Climate change” 23.8 million hits
Is this another tipping point?
Great Post Kate, … you are like Joan of Arc with a keyboard a big brain and a great sense of humor. Who could ask for more!
Thanks
I think Harper has made clear his view that AGW is an economic scam – and we can trust him to deal with it…just as Ausralia has also stood up and rejected cap and trade. ~ ET
Agreed; it’s an economic scam and PMSH will deal with it economically – ie no taxpayer dollars will be thrown at it.
Also, prior to Dec 7, there’s just no utility in telegraphing any strategy, and certainly no utility in playing into the hands of heavily biased media.
Jon Stewart quipped about climategate the other night. When they start making fun of it before the media does anything, you know the media have dropped the ball. Which is good because it means they have lost the opportunity to control the message. 🙂
Tremendous piece, Kate. And thank you for all you’ve done during this fiasco. You should be next in line for receiving the Order of Canada.
Great essay, Kate!
Their spiritual predecessors, who always attempted with good success to suppress any mention in the western press regarding Stalin’s orchestrated famine to slaughter millions of kulaks, must be sitting around in hell these days shaking their heads in despair. Modern party members and useful idiots in the media and elsewhere who can’t even suppress the truth about a nebulous capitalism destroying scam long enough to get it firmly in place and rewarding the faithful. Something must be done about the internet that thwarts their efforts for a new utopia.
pete,
Is any minority government supposed to sing to the tune of opposition?
Aren’t grits and dippers broke and afraid of election?
I’ve heard this concept too many times and it’s nothing but a lousy excuse for being a red bellied tories.
The hacker who exposed this climategate fraud should be Times magazine’s Man/woamn/group Of The Year and he/she/they should receive the Nobel Prize.
I have a lot of respect for whoever that person or group is.
This person/group is/are real heroes.
I am not kidding.
If their identity is ever revealed I think their lives could be in danger, when billions and trillions of dollars are at play, assassinations are not a far fetched possiblity…