Ever since I appeared on the CBC in early December to argue about Climategate, a mountain of evidence has come forth to indicate that the story the CBC ignored for so long, has genuine scientific evidence backing it. Whether it be Glaciergate or Africagate or Naturaldisastergate [sorry, I made that last one up myself], the CBC is unrelenting in it’s intent to ignore the issue.
If you actually search for the term climategate on the CBC website, you’re given some very slim pickings indeed. There’s Rex Murphy’s editorial that aired the same day I was on TV, the Maxime Bernier open letter to the Gazette, and there’s a very belated explanation from the CBC ombudsman on the Delayed coverage of “Climategate”. But not much else in the way of reporting what’s going on the world on this critical story, other than a brief summary of events from a Canadian Press story in February.
Instead, we’re fed a steady dose of climate change articles and editorials from “experts”, authors, and scientists, giving an ample amount of coverage to David Suzuki and his foundation. Indeed, if you enter the term “climategate” into the CBC search engine you are returned with 54 results, one of which was my first and final appearance on the public broadcaster. But enter in the term “climate change”, and be prepared for a flood of 9,040 results. Granted, some are years old and, but I think my 0.6:100 ratio point is taken.
What the CBC does give plenty of face time to, is articles like this one, written by Richard Handler, entitled The burden of believing in global weirding. Using the same shamefully patronizing language of the subject of his story, Al Gore, he writes that it would be “wishful thinking” to believe that all this bad news about Climategate disproves the science of man-made climate change. He goes on to attribute the cold and snowy winter experienced by most of the Northern Hemisphere this year to, you guessed it, global warming.
One of the greatest shams of the “Inconvenient Truth” rhetoric is that it doesn’t stand up under the “follow the money” scrutiny. Climate scientists like Dr.Rajendra Pachauri of the IPCC, and thousands like him around the world, have greatly benefitted from funding placed in climate research. And the CBC crown corporation has spent millions of dollars on programs promoting scientists, like David Suzuki, who fulfill an editorial directive. Meanwhile, those people like Al Gore, involved in the collusion between government and green energy corporations, have made millions of dollars on legislation aimed at shifting government spending into areas of green technology.
On February 5, the CBC Ombudsman, Vince Carlin, explained in a statement why the CBC delayed coverage of the Climategate story.
According to Esther Enkin, Executive Editor of CBC News, the explanation was merely a lapse in assessing the value of the story. Defending the move, she pointed to other mainstream news outlets that similarly ignored the story. To this I would respond with a simple comparison.
The CBC ran a story one day after University of Ottawa law professor Amir Attaran claimed, without evidence, to have seen the unredacted documents pertaining to the Afghan detainee issue that would prove Canada’s direct involvement in ordering the torture of captured combatants. The “value” of broadcasting unsubstantiated rumours of secret documents not meant for public consumption would, it seems, depend entirely upon whether other media outlets are doing the same thing. It isn’t as if CBC tried to scoop CTV on the Amir Attaran story, right? But climategate? Well, let’s just wait two weeks and see if anybody touches it with a ten-foot pole.
The ombudsman statement continues:
While it may be comforting to some to point to the lapse in coverage by other major main-stream outlets, I am afraid that CBC Journalistic Standards and Practices, and our own self-esteem, do not allow that as an excuse for poor journalism. Ironically, the story may have received more coverage than was really justified by the “real” scientific revelations contained in the documents–i.e., not many.
In any event, this was not the CBC’s finest hour. I trust that appropriate attention will be brought to bear on the weekend staffing of CBCNews.ca and other immediate response units of CBC News.
Not much has changed since this statement. CBC continues to ignore the scientific debate, and continues to editorialize the “consensus” view. While they can afford to pay journalists to give full-time attention to speculating about redacted documents pertaining to Afghanistan, it would seem nobody in the mother corp can spare more than a few moments to write about the ongoing scandals of the IPCC and the information wars on climate.
