Yesterday I posted a story from CBS News: Quake n’ Bake: Global Warming Causes More Energetic Earthquakes?
The main headline was this: Seismic Activity 5 Times More Energetic Than 20 Years Ago Because Of Global Warming
This drew a lot of attention because of the total lack of verifiable science associated with it. I posted some graphs of USGS data showing that the opposite was true, that recent earthquake energy was actually less that in the early 1900’s, and several commenters pointed out that the source of the story, a Dr. Tom Chalko, has some less than stellar associations with what I would describe as “new age” mysticism, such as Thiaoouba Prophecy and “reading your Aura”. He also writes a dandy piece entitled “Global Warming: Can Earth EXPLODE?” which is linked to a website he runs about “bioresonance” where you can buy a “bioresonant” shirt.
So with that sort of science background available on the web for anyone to see in a few seconds of searching, one wonders how CBS News was duped into running a story like this without even bothering to check into the author. This makes the “historic” Microsoft Word documents used by Dan Rather to discredit President Bush’s National Guard Service look like a peer reviewed science paper.
The story gets weirder. CBS attributed the story on their website to the Associated Press (AP) and you can see that clearly in the screen capture of the story below. Odd thing though, there is no dateline, as you usually see with an AP story, and no story author:
Click for a full sized image or see the full text as a PDF file here
After apparently learning of the less than scientific associations of the lead author of the research, CBS removed it from their website as of about 3 p.m. EST on June 19. This was the original link:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/18/tech/main4191556.shtml
Here is where it gets interesting, after CBS pulled the story from their website, I did some searches for it on the Associated Press website at www.ap.org thinking it would still be there.
The story is not found in searches at www.ap.org using “Tom Chalko” or “earthquake global warming”
At the www.ap.org search, for earthquake(s) we find many stories either side of it on June 18th:
But nothing about the Chalko story. Putting in the authors name “Tom Chalko” also yields nothing on ap.org. I wasn’t content with that, so I asked my radio station newsroom at KPAY to run a search on the AP wire stories they receive; nothing turned up. I also asked the editor of our local newspaper, the Chico Enterprise Record, to run a search, and he also found no evidence that AP had transmitted this story.
A further point- it seems to be only connected to CBS News, and their attribution to the AP appears when I do Google News searches such as this one:
“earthquakes global warming Associated press” or “Tom Chalko AP” the only association that appears is the CBS story with (AP) in it, as shown in the screencap below:
Click for a larger screencap image
As seasoned internet news junkies know, if the story had run on the AP wire service, it would have showed up automatically in several newspapers, radio, and TV station websites. But it did not.
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=869983
MSNBC also apparently fell for the Marketwire story:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25222766/
Taking the investigation one step further, Jeff Poor of the Business & Media Institute asked CBS News and AP about it in the story he filed:
“On June 18, CBS.com posted a story claiming that global seismic activity on Earth is now five times more energetic than it was just 20 years ago because of global warming. The story had no byline, but was attributed to the Associated Press. The story was identical to a June 17 Market Wire press release attributed to Tom Chalko, the scientist that made the claim of the earthquake/global warming link. However, as of 3 p.m. on June 19, the CBS.com story was no longer available and both CBS.com and AP were blaming the other side for report. ”
“According to Mike Sims, director of news and operations for CBSNews.com, the story was an Associated Press story that came across their wire, but Susan James, a researcher for the Associated Press, told the Business & Media Institute no such story exists in their database. “It’s not an AP story,” James said. “It’s not turning up in our archives.” Sims did not immediately return an inquiry for a response to the Associated Press’ claim. The original story and the identical press release detail the alleged increased danger from earthquakes as a result of global warming.”
So from the four different angles, Google, my local radio station newsroom, my local newspaper newsroom, and AP itself, it has become clear that this was never an Associated Press story. Yet it is even more clear that CBS incorrectly attributed the story to AP, and then removed it without so much as a note, much less a retraction.
In my opinion, CBS News has no credibility left. This opinion is qualified by: I’ve been to CBS in New York to do work for CBS Newspath, and spent 25 years on TV at two CBS News local affiliates. I’ve been associated with CBS News during my entire TV Meteorology career. I trusted it at one time.
It’s one thing to screw up a story, it happens. But it is quite another to incorrectly attribute the source, and then to remove the story with no notice or retraction or recognition of the error whatsoever.
Accurate science reporting, particularly in stories attributing almost anything to “global warming” in the mainstream media has been woefully inadequate, but this is pure incompetence on the part of CBS.
NOTE: Thanks to Carsten A. Arnholm of Norway who provided the screencap of the original CBS story shortly after it had been removed, and to Barry Hearn for the PDF version.
Also, I made a small correction to the wording on 6/20 I meant to say “dateline” as usually appears on AP stories, not “byline”.
Aargh… My Melbourne is a fine city, but even the best have that institution just over the fence in left field; and there will always be escapees.
Eric,
Science Daily has feature on the NOAA story.
You just can’t miss all the “likelys”.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080619175522.htm
Expect More Droughts, Heavy Downpours, Excessive Heat, And Intense Hurricanes Due To Global Warming, NOAA.
-Abnormally hot days and nights, along with heat waves, are very likely to become more common.
-Cold nights are very likely to become less common.
-Sea ice extent is expected to continue to decrease and may even disappear in the Arctic Ocean in summer in coming decades.
-Precipitation, on average, is likely to be less frequent but more intense.
-Droughts are likely to become more frequent and severe in some regions.
-Hurricanes will likely have increased precipitation and wind.
-The strongest cold-season storms in the Atlantic and Pacific are likely to produce stronger winds and higher extreme wave heights.
“Likely” just means they don’t know.
If I roll the dice, a number is also very likely to appear.
Anthony,
Put it on slashdot and lets see CBS duck that one.
I sent this url to Fox as a News Tip… Hope someone runs with it…
It is still out on Yahoo as well:
http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/080617/0408064.html
I don’t know. I post my first comment and it ends up being on a story which is utter nonsense!!
Typical 🙂
Keep up the good work Anthony, I really enjoy reading the articles on here.
REPLY: Thanks Pete.
…. Global warming causes more energetic Earthquakes…..?
….. Nah mate!…. That woz me bonkin’ me girlfriend. Sure o’ it.
Oi! Never thought o’ it before…. But maybe sex causes Global warming, an’ then causes Earthquakes….! You know… Asymetrical shakin’ and warmin’…. Night one side… Day th’ other…. 3 billion goin’ fer it on the nite side o’ the world, while’s th’ other side’s surfin’ an’ hangin’ out at th’ mall….
…. Who’s up fer gettin’ a grant and putting this Hypothesis to th’ test!
Disappointing. The state of science reporting in the media is simply atrocious. They’re all about fantasizing about things, looking for the big “doom and gloom” stories which will get them a few more views and a view more advertising dollars. Seems to be a problem with their news paradigm more than anything else.
I’m from Canada, and all is not lost, we have our ICSC ( International Climate Science Coalition ) and the Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change. See the link.
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/3566
K.
This article in CBS is the same kind of pseudo science that some times made the news. Here in this blog sometimes we have this kind of pseudocience.It’s fun to see pseudoscience talking about pseudoscience.
Sorry for my bad english.
This just in: CBS has located Bat Boy! FBI dispatched to apprehend the half man, half bat.
Dan, don’t tease! I really, really miss Bat Boy. He was the reason I looked forward to waiting in line at the check out counter. Now, alas, Weekly World News is dead – all hope of finding Bat Boy is gone…
Just shows you what all those CBS fact checkers do, stay out of the way of the agenda. Must be the same ones Dan Rather used.
Political science is not what real scientists want. If you can’t count on them to be honest and unbiased brokers of fact what can you count on. The government institutions, like the climate folks and the hurricane folks are skating real close to the precipice as it is. I wonder how many more are cooking the books. Is government grant money paying for what the granters want to hear?
The only thing the wild hurricane predictions have done is scare off near all the Florida tourists — Well there is that one good thing, Gov Crist had been anti-drill but now that the state budget is in shambles and the money from offshore leases would come in handy, he did a quick 180. Odd how that works, and what $4 a gallon gas does to tourism.
Note on Chaiten, while she’s seismically quiet just now the new dome is building rapidly, all while the eruption has been venting continuously implying a very large source chamber.
A major eruption by summer’s end is even money.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/sep/08/climatechange
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080314-warming-quakes.html
http://environment.about.com/od/globalwarming/a/earthquakes.htm
Most interesting. I don’t know what to make of it.
Seems to be a lot of really weird things going on in the news these days.
I like shifting from one news cast to another and often break out in laughter at what is being said and how.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
Smiles,
Donna
What a freakin’ joke. “objectivity” is nonexistent in the news. Sad
This is a link to Yahoo that posted the story.
http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/cbs-news-sinks-to-new-low-publishes-crackpot-global-warming-story-attributes-it-to-associated-press/#comments
I believe that the story was posted by the author on to a fee based wire service.
As the Earth has started to cool down, now..
I ask myself, are the MSM outlets now beginning to run dry of fresh global warming stories and find it difficult to feed to hysteria?
Are they now so desperate so they have to publish stories like this one from this new age wacko without checking him out.
Maybe its just me, but I am of the opinion that Chalko may be more credible than algore and his dog JimBobHansen. It seems that Goebbels was right about the lie thing.
The only thing the MSM cares about is spreading the dogma. They’re just one of the warm-mongers. If a story says we’re all going to hell in a handbasket because there are too many SUV’s, they’ll run it on page 1.
Obviously they found out pretty quick that this “Dr” is a certified Loon and now pretend they never ran it.
About that “degree in laser holography”: I seriously doubt there is such a thing. For one, to make a hologram, you have to use a laser. Lots of people make them. I made one or two. It’s techno-art. And you don’t get a degree in it.
From the comments on the still-existing link, nobody was taken in by this charlatan.
“no recognition of the error whatsoever” “pure icompetence on the part of CBS”
You’re too kind. I don’t think it was an error and I don’t think it was incompetence. I think it was a burning desire for some turkey to print a BS story and to stick a source on it that would give it a little credibility.
Retracted because they got caught. Didn’t learn anything from the Dan Rather debacle, I guess. If they don’t start learning soon, they’ll be looking up at the National Inquirer.
Everybody should remember that the purpose of CBS is to sell products, not inform people. When everybody finally realizes this, we’ll all be better off.
These idiots will say anything to get people to believe in the hoax that we call global warming (or on cooler than normal days, global climate change).
What does the warming of the planet’s atmosphere have to do with it’s crust? Furthermore, is there any scientific evidence to support the wild claim that the warming of the earth’s crust would cause tectonic plates to shift thus causing earthquakes?
Where did the people learn science, on the back of a cereal box?
“ cBS ”
They’re bound and determined to have it STICK PERMANENTLY!
Australia redeemed by this letter in The Australian.
Garth Paltridge
Emeritus Professor and Honorary Research Fellow,
Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies,
University of Tasmania (Australia)
Page 4. on Stay Warm, World…
http://staywarmworld.wordpress.com/