The Climategate Dustup

I have learned that the news media does not report fairly or in an unbiased fashion. It was my belief in earlier years that they did, but learned differently when I became responsible for public relations for my company in Vermont. It's not true that media is unbiased and expecting otherwise is a mistake.

Reporters are often not very knowledgeable about what they report. Perhaps they're better in larger media organizations, where people have a 'beat' to follow and do so for years.

Even more bias is shown by editors who decide what stories to cover and how deeply. The greatest bias is deciding NOT to cover certain stories that have large implications. All media are guilty of these biased judgements.

We must always remember that all human beings, even scientists have biases. We are seeing this so very clearly in the Climategate dust up.

The blogosphere of skeptics is rightfully and diligently poring over the information made available by hackers of the servers at the Climate Research Unit. Mr R.K. Pachauri, head of the U.N. climate research group has released a statement that I believe is directed to the politicians of the world who have agreed with the conclusions contained in Summary for Policy Makers of the latest IPPC report. I have read his statement and it's mostly BS, IMHO, a sad attempt at damage control in advance of the Copenhagen climate change summit.

Andrew Revkin at the NY Times, obviously a true believer in AGW (Anthropogenic Global Warming) issues a somewhat mild rebuke of the 'tribe' of true believers by publishing a statement on his blog from Judith Curry, a climate scientist apparently of the AGW tribe, who suggests that scientists of the AGW tribe in this mess should take the high ground.

"Take the “high ground:” engage the skeptics on our own terms (conferences, blogosphere); make data/methods available/transparent; clarify the uncertainties; openly declare our values."

Meanwhile, Steve McIntyre, a Canadian who is a long-time vocal leader of the skeptics group is digesting on his blog the data, emails and software from the hack. The results would appear to be very damaging to the AGW tribe.

Mr. Gore will find it difficult to avoid these inconvenient truths much longer.

Now, I wonder how Vermont politicians will react to these revelations? We'll soon know. I hope our AGW media will ask them hard questions. Is it possible?