Public Media Bias and Climate Change

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, British Broadcasting Corporation--Taxpayer Funded Bias
Public Media Bias and Climate Change
By Dr. Tim Ball Monday, January 25, 2010
Americans are lucky left wing radio station Air America crashed before Obama and founder now Senator Al Franken found a way to turn it into public radio.

Ironically, Saul Alinsky, father of US radical socialism wanted to break control of the media because it was used by power elites. Obama doesn’t need to break the control as the mainstream media act as a state media.

Bernie Goldberg wrote about this in his book “A Slobbering Love Affair.” Hypocrisy is the problem with mainstream media bias because they claim they’re unbiased. Public media practices similar hypocrisy. My worst experiences with bias and personal attacks in the media were with public media including the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). They should be unbiased and apolitical but they are not. Funding by all taxpayers demands neutrality, but it doesn’t happen and it’s always left of centre.

Totalitarian governments control all media. In democracies, public media means radio and television, but paradoxically not newspapers. It is considered acceptable because they don’t have a monopoly, they do have a considerable financial advantage. Fear of political interference means they are often protected, but this means they are not accountable to the market place or the taxpayers. They have no place in society.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation – Taxpayer Funded Bias.
Mission statements all belie what they actually do. The CBC claim, “The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation occupies a unique position of trust. Not only is it the most substantial and broadly-based broadcast journalism organization in Canada, it is funded, through Parliament, by the people of Canada. CBC/Radio-Canada therefore considers it a duty to provide consistent, high-quality information upon which all citizens may rely.”

Various reporters like Anna Maria Tremonti have called, but to my knowledge, never used anything I provided. I believe they were fishing expeditions to learn and then counter denier’s views without giving them voice. I stopped responding to requests.

Leftist environmentalist David Suzuki. Biases, distortions, and false information
CBC science is almost the exclusive playground of the leftist environmentalist David Suzuki. Biases, distortions, and false information are in evidence throughout his series, “the Nature of Things”. Bob McDonald ably supports him with his bias, lack of climate qualifications, and misrepresentations.

McDonald has no post-high school education. He has honorary degrees but they’re condemnation of the granting universities. In one bio as a keynote speaker they wrote, “Bob refers to himself as a ‘dropout’ and shared his personal and professional journey in a world where the lack of formal credentials can create significant barriers.” Lack of credentials is only an issue when you disagree with anthropogenic global warming.

The CBC produces very biased programs and only show material to support one side. Gore’s movie appeared often even after the major errors were identified. The CBC program Fifth Estate planned a program ostensibly about climate change. Warned of the objective and wary because of the biased title “The Denial Machine” I declined to participate. Initial requests were reasonable then the producer became belligerent. If I didn’t participate, my side would not be heard and they could say what they wanted. I declined. They became desperate because the script was already written.

In northern British Columbia to give a breakfast keynote speech, I arrived early to check the platform. A man approached and asked for an interview afterward. I asked if he was from Fifth Estate, he firmly said no he was from CBC News. Without my knowledge I was being filmed from below the stage. I had a 7-hour drive to a second presentation and didn’t have time. He left and returned a few minutes later and asked if they could interview me there. I said he was free to do what he wanted. He left the stage but came back 10 minutes later and said the camera crew didn’t want to drive that far and all they wanted was 10 minutes. I agreed.
They did not record any of my speech. I sat down before the camera, so the interviewer assumed I was committed and then disclosed they were from Fifth Estate. I stood up removed the microphone and when asked why I was leaving said, “I don’t talk to liars.” In the program they used the footage taken earlier to superimpose my voice. I protested to the CBC Ombudsman to no avail. Ironically, this was paid for partly by my taxes.

British Broadcasting Corporation – More Taxpayer Funded Bias
The BBC gets away with very biased reporting, especially on climate. Their mission claims, “The BBC is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world. Its mission is to enrich people’s lives with programmes that inform, educate and entertain. It is a public service broadcaster, established by a Royal Charter and funded by the license fee that is paid by UK households. - Trust is the foundation of the BBC: we are independent, impartial and honest.”

Trust is not my experience and the leaked e-mails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) disclose the extent of the deception and involvement of the BBC. An internal review is underway.

First attempt at disclosure occurred when CRU information was sent to Paul Hudson at the BBC, probably chosen because he appeared reasonable in his views. On October 11, 2009 an email to Mann said, “You may be aware of this already. Paul Hudson, BBCs reporter on climate change, on Friday wrote that there’s been no warming since 1998, and that pacific oscillations will force cooling for the next 20-30 years. It is not outrageously biased in presentation as are other skeptics views.” The CRU gang thought the BBC was in their control as Mann’s reply indicates. “Extremely disappointing to see something like this appear on BBC. Its particularly odd, since climate is usually Richard Black’s beat at BBC (and he does a great job). From what I can tell, this guy was formerly a weather person at the Met Office. We may do something about this on RealClimate, but meanwhile it might be appropriate for the Met Office to have a say about this, I might ask Richard Black what’s up here?” Why didn’t Hudson disclose the bombshell that appeared in his e-mails? Either he was ordered not to disclose or he feared for his job, or both.

At the first Heartland Institute Climate Conference in New York, the BBC asked for an interview. I thought they were covering the first international “skeptics” conferences avoided by most media. After 45 minutes of taping, they asked if I would participate in a longer interview the next day. I signed the normal waiver before the second interview, which lasted approximately 2 hours. They were not there to cover the conference; it simply provided easy access to skeptics for a program ridiculing them. From almost 3 hours of tape, they selected two short sentences one which they repeated. I complained to Ofcom, the ombudsman agency, to no avail. Deliberate misrepresentation of the purpose of the interview was allowed because I signed the waiver.

The left-wing bias is the total culture of the BBC community
The internal review will prove nothing and will be a whitewash. The left-wing bias is the total culture of the BBC community and will not change. Here is what a reporter experienced who attended a BBC seminar on climate change. “I found the seminar frankly shocking. The BBC crew (senior executives from every branch of the corporation) were matched by an equal number of specialists, almost all (and maybe all) of whom could be said to have come from the “we must support Kyoto” school of climate change activists.” Then the most damming comment, “I was frankly appalled by the level of ignorance of the issue which the BBC people showed.” Sadly, Britons have to pay a license fee with all proceeds going to the BBC. The fee and the BBC should disappear.

No Place For Public Media
Taxpayer funded public media has consistent left-wing bias regardless of the party in power. Mission statements claim balance, but this is never the case. Remove the funding and these agencies fail. Deliberations by the Obama government on limiting or closing down what are dubbed right wing radio appeared early using the usual deceptive approach. Create the bogeyman by identifying supposed exploitation then propose fairness.

I use the word fairness because they proposed the “Fairness Doctrine” as the legislative vehicle. Repeal of the Doctrine allowed the spread of conservative talk radio so obviously re-enactment will cause its demise.

Air America crashed and conservative radio soared without the Fairness Doctrine. The people have spoken by listening. Freedom to speak also means freedom to listen.