| on Apr 13, 2008, 01:00 AM E.S.T.
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A
talking point among "climate sceptics" on both sides of the Atlantic
has been the bizarre tale of how the BBC's chief reporter on climate
change censored an item on the BBC website after being harried by a
"climate activist".
On April 4 Roger Harrabin
posted a story on the fact that world temperatures have not continued
to rise in the past 10 years, and this year will fall to a level
markedly below the average of the past two decades.
This was a red
rag to Jo Abbess of the Campaign Against Climate Change (Hon President,
George Monbiot), who emailed Mr Harrabin demanding that he "correct"
his item.
Mr Harrabin insisted that what he had
written was true. There are indeed eminent climate scientists "who
question whether warming will continue as predicted".
This
only angered Ms Abbess further. She said it was "highly irresponsible
to play into the hands of the sceptics", to "even hint that the Earth
is cooling down again".
Mr Harrabin, though he has
led the BBC's tireless promotion of warmist orthodoxy, stood firm. Even
in the "general media", he replied, "sceptics" highlight the lack of
increase since 1998: to ignore this might give the impression that
"debate is being censored".
His item had, after all, added "we are still in a long-term warming trend".
This
was too much for Ms Abbess. She responded that this was not "a matter
of debate". He should not be quoting the sceptics "whose voice is heard
everywhere, on every channel, deliberately obstructing the emergence of
the truth".
Unless he changed his item, she said,
"I would have to conclude that you are insufficiently educated to be
able to know when you have been psychologically manipulated". She
threatened to expose him by spreading his replies across the internet.
At
this point the BBC's man caved in. Within minutes a new version
appeared, given the same time and date as that which he had consigned
to Winston Smith's memory hole.
Out went any
mention of "sceptics" who question global warming. After a guarded
reference to this year's "slightly cooler" temperatures, a new
paragraph said that they would "still be above the average" and that we
will "soon exceed the record year of 1998 because of the global warming
induced by greenhouse gases".
Of course we have
long known where the BBC stands on climate change. But it is good to
have such clear evidence that, even when one of its reporters tries to
be honest, he can be whipped back into line by a pressure group.
In
the end, Ms Abbess still circulated the exchanges on the internet, to
show the great victory she had won for the "emerging truth". Source
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