Truly astonishing things are beginning to happen at the BBC over the CRU emails. First, Andrew Neil on the Daily Politics yesterday posed some decent questions about what had gone on at CRU and about the climate change record generally. Second, a genuine climate change sceptic (Professor Fred Singer) was allowed to speak, only the second time in recent history that I’ve seen this happen. Thirdly, Neil worked hard to expose the vacuity of the warmist stance.
I’ve never seen an interview like that on the BBC, ever, and believe you me, I’ve searched.
Next, the fanatic warmist Harrabin actually seems to be treating the CRU hacking as a story that might matter. Perhaps it’s because his chum George Monbiot has called for the resignation of CRU boss Phil Jones, but whatever the reason, I’ve seen correspondence that shows him to be on the case. And last night, he actually broadcast a piece on Radio 4 which, to quote the excellent Bishop Hill, was “not a complete whitewash”. That’s a miracle.
Finally, there could be even further reverberations to come. It seems that the BBC weather reporter Paul Hudson – he who last month shocked us all by becoming one of the first BBC staffers to admit that there were holes in warmist propaganda- has revealed on his blog that he had received, and had been sitting on, the hacked email files from CRU for more than a month. You couldn’t make this up.
“It seems that the BBC weather reporter Paul Hudson – he who last month shocked us all by becoming one of the first BBC staffers to admit that there were holes in warmist propaganda- has revealed on his blog that he had received, and had been sitting on, the hacked email files from CRU for more than a month. You couldn’t make this up.”
Harrabin, Black et al could do themselves a huge favour by just coming clean about what they knew, and when they knew it – not to mention acknowledging just how damaging these emails/code are – rather than to let constant drip drip drip of information continue. The game’s up and the BBC crew should be doing all they can to come out of this with the tiniest bit of dignity preserved.
Also the longer this goes on the more i’m inclined to conclude that the information wasn’t hacked at all, we’re dealing with a whistleblower.
I think Hudson is saying that he was only forwarded the few emails relating to his article, not all the CRU ones which have since emerged. But I could be wrong.
It’s good to hear that the BBC has finally done some reasonable reporting on this; the sustained criticism since this story broke (from the blogosphere and in the comments on the BBC’s website) appears to have forced their hand.
That confession from Monbiot is priceless:
“I apologise. I was too trusting of some of those who provided the evidence I championed. I would have been a better journalist if I had investigated their claims more closely.”
Isn’t that what we sceptics have been saying all along? I wonder if we’ll get similar admissions from the BBC environment correspondents.
The computer geeks have been analysing some of the very-dated FORTRAN (Now that takes me back 25 years) programs used to process the data and they are ripping into how it has been compromised by super-imposed ‘corrections’ which appear intended to produce pre-determined results. Indeed the programs had some fundamental errors which question the competence or experience of those who produced the programs. This is fraud on a massive scale yet these ‘scientists’ really did believe they could get away with it, assisted by Roger Black and the BBC – they are mentioned in despatches.
Surely there must be sackings at the BBC over this ?
DB,
Dont get too excited. Monboit is a global warming ™ jihadi so take anything he says with a grain of salt.
Its entirely possible his comments were sarcastic in nature. Given this guys history, I somehow doubt he has suddenly woken up realising he is actually a reporter, not an opinion pusher!
Mailman
Andrew Neil has blogged about the CRU emails this morning. His conclusion: “One thing seems pretty sure: the debate certainly isn’t over!” Good for Neil.
DB,
Do you reckon that perhaps this “episode” is allowing those who dont believe global warming ™ is man made to come out of the wood work at al beeb?
Mailman
Mailman – hopefully it will now be more difficult for the BBC’s green activists to shut down debate on the matter.
Mailman
Monbiot was deadly serious in his criricisms of the scientists, and his call for the CRU director to resign. There have been some 800 comments so far on his Guardian article – including some reponses by Monbiot himself repeating what he had said, confirming that he is really pissed-off by the whole business.
That leaves Black and Harrabin looking even more stupid / unprofessional.
And the beeboid response is… see the next topic as to how their mind works !
“Climategate reminds us of the liberal-left’s visceral loathing of open
debate”
(James Delingpole):
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017760/climategate-reminds-us-of-the-liberal-lefts-visceral-loathing-of-open-debate/
“BBC wobble on Climate Change: the Corporation and the dead-tree media have lost the war”
(Gerald Warner)
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/geraldwarner/100017799/bbc-wobble-on-climate-change-the-corporation-and-the-dead-tree-media-have-lost-the-war/
The last emails were dated 12 November – so how could Hudson “been sitting on them for more than a month”. Sorry but this doesn’t ring true, unless I am missing something.
http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-au&brand=ninemsn&tab=m164&mediaid=277675&from=39&vid=92DA8DB5-B08B-4EC2-893B-6A3DCB0D19ED&playlist=videoByTag:mk:en-AU:vs:0:tag:aunews_auaca:ns:MSNVideo_Top_Cat:ps:10:sd:-1:ind:1:ff:8A
The last sentence in the above Australian news report is priceless.