The season of disinvitation continues: Chico State University can't handle a slideshow

I wrote back on September 28th about how Dr. Roger Pielke Senior and Dr. Bob Carter had been invited to present their views on climate science, then after the organizers found out what might be discussed, redacted the invitations to these scientists.

We also recently saw another example of how a “great debate” on climate had been staged by a Hollywood heavyweight, director James Cameron, who backed out of a debate with Climate Depot’s Marc Morano at the last minute, after Morano was already in the air and en-route to the debate. He’s now been dubbed “Titanic chicken of the sea” for saying things like James Cameron boldly slammed global warming skeptics as “swine” on the day he was supposed to be debating them. “I think they’re swine” Also see: Director James Cameron Unleashed: Calls for gun fight with global warming skeptics: ‘I want to call those deniers out into the street at high noon and shoot it out with those boneheads’ then not having the guts to actually follow through with a debate that he set up in the first place. All bark, no bite.

After all that…. guess what?

I was invited by Chico State University to the Great Debate Oct 28th in the City council Chambers on the topic of the Proposition 23, delay of California Prop32, the “global warming law”. I accepted with a caveat, but due to that caveat I’ve now joined the club of the “disinvited”. My crime? Wanting to show some slides to go along with my oral presentation.

I figured this would be OK because when the city sustainability committee presented their “Climate Action Plan” they got to use their own slide show, but silly me, apparently science slide shows are only for those who believe, not those who want to challenge the belief.

This started way back when I was critical of our local city council and the city sustainability committee’s Climate Action Plan which is heavily opinionated by people from the sustainability cabal of our local university. I was criticized for my stance by sustainability guru Dr. Mark Stemen who said I was ducking debate:

“There are a series of debates scheduled on AB 32/ Prop 23. Do you want to crawl out and play? Or is it too scary in public?”

As I explained to Professor Stemen then, one of the reasons I don’t do a lot of public debate is that I have an 85% hearing loss, and it makes following a live interchange difficult, sometimes impossible. When I was on the local school board, having public meetings in the very same council chambers, the only way I could follow dialog was with a  hearing assistance device. It was difficult, and sometimes embarrassing, but I did my public duty the best I could.

I do better when I give a presentation, interaction where I have to hear others and respond on the fly is tough. Most people don’t understand that a hearing loss requires using a lot of brainpower to pull meaning from context when you can’t hear well. This means forming a rebuttal can be tough when you have to think on the fly.

So when this invitation showed up in my inbox…

Name: Thia Wolf

Email: cwolf@xxxxxx

Website: http://www.csuchico.edu/fye/greatdebate

Dear Mr.  Watts:

I am writing to ask if you would be interested in participating as a debate team member in the “Main Event” community debate in City Council Chambers on October 28.  The debate subject is “AB 32: To Suspend or Not to Suspend?”  We are working to put together three-person teams on each side.  Teams will  meet with the CSU, Chico debate team for tips on debate strategies.  This meeting can be virtual.  At present, Larry Wahl has confirmed he will be on the team.  We are hoping you will be the second member and a business person concerned about AB 32 will be third.

Please let me know if this is of interest to you.  The debate is webcast live and may also be televised.  We emphasize civil discourse.  I would like to send you the general invitation and more information if you are interested. Many thanks for considering this.

thia wolf

cwolf@xxxxxx

Director, First-Year Experience Program

Time: Friday October 1, 2010 at 9:38 am

IP Address: 132.241.36.200

….I had to give it some serious thought. I read the letter carefully, and looked over the website link she gave. I asked initially if she’d be able to control the venue, since the last time I spoke at the podium in the city council chambers on an environmental issue, I was heckled, called names, and shouted at. The venue can be ugly. She said she could help control the debate, and I responded to her assurances with:

On 10/5/10 1:17 PM, “Anthony Watts” wrote:

Dear Ms. Wolf,

Thank you. I’ve looked at the materials provided, and unfortunately I cannot determine:

1. Where the event you are inviting me to would be held (in Council main chamber or in a side room)

2. What time it would be held and the duration.

3. The actual format, length of presentations, etc.

Given my hearing disability, the only possible venue for me is the main chamber. There is a hearing assistance system there, and I can bring my best headphones to plug into the receivers used.

Also, given that disability, I likely won’t be able to pick up well on others presentations and make rebuttals, the only circumstances that I would consider participating would be to be able to provide a slide show while I speak. This would allow me to make a strong factually based presentation without relying on hearing skills to rebut others.

This can easily be accomplished by connecting my laptop to the VGA port on the left side desk. I did this when I was on the school board, and the scan converter made it also transmit to the cable TV channel.

To be fair, others should be able to present a short slide show if they wish. I certainly encourage it, and it would keep the debate factually grounded. I’ll make my laptop available to anyone who wishes to put a PowerPoint presentation on it and help them test it beforehand. Thank you for your consideration.

Best Regards, Anthony Watts

She responded with:

From: “Wolf, Thia”

Date: Tuesday, October 05, 2010 1:26 PM

To: “Anthony Watts”

Cc: “Peterson, Sue”; “Justus, Zachary”

Subject: Re: Invitation to the Great Debate

Dear Mr. Watts:

Thank you for getting back to me!  I am forwarding this information to the Communication Studies faculty who organize the evening event.  I feel they are best positioned to decide if they can incorporate this technology into the evening debate.

The event is in the main Council Chambers.  The format has been developed by the debate experts in Communication, so they can go over this with you.  The Main Event starts at 6:30.  Again, the faculty should be able to give you a good estimate of how long the student debate will take, prior to the community member debate.

I have copied the two lead faculty members for this project on this email. I am sure they will confer before getting back to you, so please give them a day to do so.

I appreciate your willingness to consider participating.

Thank you,

thia

I thought the response was rather odd, because virtually every city council meeting has a slide show, and there’s a system in place to make it happen and broadcast the slide show live to the town for anyone who wants to use it. There’s really no “technology to incorporate”. Besides, neither the Great Debate Invitation sent to me, the letter Great Debate Letter AB 32 nor the web site had any caveats against using a slide show.

This is the response I got back:

From: “Wolf, Thia”

Date: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 10:43 AM

To: “Anthony Watts”

Cc: “Peterson, Sue” ; “John Rucker”; “Justus, Zachary”

Subject: Re: Invitation to the Great Debate

Dear Mr. Watts:

There is agreement that we are happy to make sure the the hearing assistance system is working well in Chambers before the debate so that you will have the benefit of its use.  The debate does not, however, include visuals.

That would require a different format from the one we use.  It is possible to place you in the debate team line-up so that rebuttal is NOT your responsibility–for instance, you could open the debate for your team.

Please let us know if you feel you can participate under these conditions.

Best,

thia

I was puzzled. Why could we not use visuals? This made no sense, especially since the room is set up for it, and the Climate Action Plan people made a slideshow when they pitched it to the city council and the public. So why can’t I?  I sent this reply:

From: “Anthony Watts”

Date: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 11:13 AM

To: “Wolf, Thia”

Cc: “Peterson, Sue” ; “John Rucker” ; “Justus, Zachary”

Subject: Re: Invitation to the Great Debate

Hello Ms. Wolf,

Thank you for your reply.

I spent my whole adult life making and presenting visuals to help people  understand scientific points on television, and now via blogging and  scientific literature. You are inviting me to participate because of who I  am and what I do. To deny me the ability to practice my craft, combined with  my hearing disability, puts me at an extreme disadvantage compared to others  there. I don’t work from a script, I don’t use a teleprompter, and I never  have. I wouldn’t write a script or statement for this either. The visuals  are my guide for the oration. I gave hour long talks in Australia this past June all over the continent and never once gave a prepared statement.

This is a technical argument that I would be making about climate and CO2,  which is the root of the issue for Prop 23 and the GHG law. It is impossible  to convey it without some visuals. People can’t see science in their heads.

Without visuals, my presence is pointless. In this day and age of visuals,  especially when there is easy and ready presentation access at the city  council chambers, I find your argument against using them weak and quite  frankly, a cop out, especially when the same opportunity can easily be  shared by others. This is sad, and out of touch with today’s reality,  because the Prop 23 battle is being fought on television with visuals and

innuendo, I would think you’d welcome factual debate with visuals, unless of  course the point of this debate is not about facts, but about feelings.

To deny visuals in a public debate is in my opinion, a sad commentary on  CSUC’s program. Even in a court of law the prosecution and the defense are allowed visuals. How else would they explain forensic science to a jury?  Get with the times!

Given the disadvantages I will face, and unless there is some sort of  accommodation for me to present at least some visuals, I see no other option  but to decline your invitation.

I await your reconsideration.

Best Regards, Anthony Watts

The reply I got back was pretty curt:

From: Wolf, Thia

Date: Thursday, October 07, 2010 8:50 AM

To: Anthony Watts

Cc: Peterson, Sue ; Justus, Zachary ; John Rucker

Subject: Great Debate

Dear Mr. Watts:

The Great Debate is meant to provide space for citizens to practice an older discourse form.  There are various kinds of presentations during the day, some of them technologized, but we are invoking a traditional style of civil exchange in the evening.  We do thank you for considering our invitation, and we regret that the format is not to your liking.  We are committed, however, to a traditional debate format for the “main event” debates.

Best,

thia

thia wolf

First-Year Experience Program, director

California State University, Chico

“Let your voice be heard.”

(530) 898-xxxx

Wow, some debates get “technologized” but mine can’t be?

I sent this in reply:

From: Anthony Watts

Date: Thursday, October 07, 2010 1:07 PM

To: Wolf, Thia

Cc: Peterson, Sue ; Justus, Zachary ; John Rucker

Subject: Re: Great Debate

Dear Ms. Wolf,

Thank you for your cordial reply. I’m sorry to say this, but I’m going to respectfully call BS on your position.

In your invitation to me,

Name: Thia Wolf

Email: cwolf@xxxxxx

Website: http://www.csuchico.edu/fye/greatdebate

Dear Mr.  Watts:

I am writing to ask if you would be interested in participating as a debate team member in the “Main Event” community debate in City Council Chambers on October 28.  The debate subject is “AB 32: To Suspend or Not to Suspend?”  We are working to put together three-person teams on each side.  Teams will  meet with the CSU, Chico debate team for tips on debate strategies.  This meeting can be virtual.  At present, Larry Wahl has confirmed he will be on the team.  We are hoping you will be the second member and a business person concerned about AB 32 will be third.

Please let me know if this is of interest to you.  The debate is webcast live and may also be televised.  We emphasize civil discourse.  I would like to send you the general invitation and more information if you are interested. Many thanks for considering this.

thia wolf

cwolf@xxxxx

Director, First-Year Experience Program

You make no caveats on presentation style of any kind. You also highlight the webcast nature of it and the televised nature of it.

Let’s recap: You invite a television person, me, and then deny him his normal tools while at the same time promoting the television and webcast nature of the entire event.

My work has been television for years, and now on the web. I operate the most visited climate science blog on the planet, now with 57 million visits. So yes, I’m fluent with both TV and web presentation. In fact I built, designed, and donated the first live webcast system for the city council chambers in 2005.

So to deny me the tools of that venue that I am fluent in using, while promoting the venue using the same tools you deny me, is a paradox. Do you see how incongruent your position is? I think you’d lose that debate.

I’m going into what I see as a hostile environment, at a disadvantage due to my hearing disability, only asking to present some slides as is normal for my work on television and web, and yet your tagline proudly says:

“Let your voice be heard.”

Well I’m sure trying, but they won’t let me use TV tools on a public TV program. As they say in the news business: “That won’t play well in Peoria”. I urge you one last time to reconsider.

Thank you for your consideration.

Best Regards, Anthony Watts

Yes my response was a little strong, but really, how can a couple of slides cause any trouble? Especially when other portions of the day long venue get to use slide shows? I asked them to reconsider in my last sentence, surely, they’d come to their senses? But days passed, nothing. So I sent this:

From: Anthony Watts

Date: Monday, October 11, 2010 11:01 AM

To: Wolf, Thia

Subject: Re: Great Debate

Hello Ms. Wolf,

It has been four days since I sent my last message and I have received no reply from you. So that I’m not bothering you anymore please clarify. My presentation is not welcome and there will be no further response.

Is that correct? Thank you for your consideration.

Best Regards, Anthony Watts

And this is the response I got back:

From: Wolf, Thia

Date: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 7:02 AM

To: Anthony Watts

Cc: Justus, Zachary ; Peterson, Sue ; John Rucker

Subject: Re: Great Debate

Dear Mr. Watts,

I am sorry for the delay in my response.  We do not want visuals during the debate, but we thank you for your input.

thia

So I’m thinking to myself, “I’ll give it some time. Maybe they’ll reconsider.”.

But here it is, the day before the “Great Debate” and I’m still waiting. [Update: I checked the program just after writing this to see that I’m truly disinvited, see graphic below -Anthony]

Given that today’s debates are fought visually in electronic media, it would have been an opportunity for CSUC students to practice debate as it is done in the real world today, rather than the debate structure of times gone by,  such as the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debate of 1858.

I suppose if you want to debate in the style of that period using only words to describe technological and science issues, more power to you, but really, this is the 21st century.

Here’s an example of how the Prop 23 debate is being waged in California on television:

The kid with the inhaler is a nice touch, don’t you think? No science here, AB32 it’s about limiting CO2, not particulates! And I used to think the Lung Association was a straight shooter.

They are off my list of charities now.