Gosh, according to many, I’m a far worse person for speaking my mind on the subject. But here is what happened to one TV meteorologist when he put a few notes about “global warming” in his weather forecast. – Anthony
From tampabay.com “The FEED” blog:
Tampa weatherguy Paul Dellegatto named “Worser” person by Keith Olbermann
WTVT-Ch. 13 chief meteorologist Paul Dellegatto is such a mild-mannered guy, it’s hard to imagine him in a televised throw-down with one of cable TV’s most outspoken anchors.
But that’s what happened Wednesday night, when MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann named the Tampa weatherguy to second place in that evening’s “Worst Person in the World” listing, citing a recent statement by Dellegatto during a newscast saying there are some signs that runaway global warming isn’t happening.
In the Tampa Bay area to take in some spring training games, Olbermann dinged Dellegatto for “putting in global warming denial propaganda into the local freaking weather forecast of the local freaking Fox station.” He accused the weatherguy of downplaying “the whole global warming doomsayer theory,” noting sarcastically that global warming can make some areas on the Earth unseasonably cooler as well.
(UPDATE: After trading Facebook messages with Dellegatto earlier today, I had hoped to interview him about Olbermann’s criticisms. But Fox declined to make him available — instead, a spokesman released a two-line statement:
“Nobody cares about Keith Olbermann. He’s irrelevant.”
Judge that for yourself by checking the clip from Wednesday’s show below.
If you would like to send some words of support to WTVT, here is the link to contact them.
There’s no point in complaining to MSNBC about Olberman, this rant is mild compared to his regular fare. The management there has heard worse I’m sure. – Anthony
Mike Ryan:
“My question would be: Why are all the predictions made by the AGW alarmists so far into the future that many of us will be long since dead (well I don’t expect live beyond 100) by the time these things are supposed to happen and won’t be able to check if they actually did happen?”
Because they are not thinking rationally.
A true science researcher would refrain from making such long term predictions/scenarios.They would focus on the here and now and into the already recorded past.Research that can be reproducable and thus have at validated status to continue research.
The IPCC report showed these long range scenarios/predictions of temperature increases to year 2050 and year 2100. Mostly based on the AGW hypothesis and the media runs with it.Since such proclamations are not validated or reproducable.They fall into the realm of climate religion.
These IPCC reports are treated as “settled” science.It is stagnating and easily bypassed with better and updated papers.That is how good science research is practiced.Continuing to expand knowledge based on credible past published papers.
So when someone tells you to have FAITH in those much talked about IPCC’s 50-100 years into the future climate models.That are not validated.Then you should move away and maintain rational skepticism.
I liked Keith Olbermann back when he was at ESPN. He was funny. But behind the scenes at ESPN things were awry, “…Olbermann was the only former ESPN star not invited back for the sports network’s 25th anniversary”.
http://nymag.com/news/features/30338/
Now at MSNBC his show is a catharsis for those on the political far left.
The political left is overplaying their hand in AGW. They must be getting frustrated. Al Gore’s movie didn’t convince everyone. “Consensus” didn’t work. Neither did “settled science” or “beyond debate”. So now they’re just coming out with their true colors. Yesterday we saw the article that tried to make it look like anyone that questions AGW is just an old white man from the right of politics. And now we see this Keith Olbermann story.
The political left is doing their opponents in the AGW issue a favor by pulling away their mask of pretense and letting everyone know what is really going on with AGW. God bless them!
Here’s a parody video of Keith Olbermann. It’s from the NBC website so a commercial will run first before the skit starts :
http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/countdown-with-keith-olbermann/805561/
Meteorologists probably present more science to the public every day than anyone else. They deliver the basic data, show patterns and associations, put it in context, illustrate changes with trend charts, extrapolate on the knowledge, explain the physics, and all in fairly simple terms that most people can understand. A meteorologist at a local station just retired after 30+ years of being one of the most trusted (according to numerous polls of the audience) tv-folk in the area. The station did 15 minutes of career review and a live interview with him on his last broadcast. What garnered him such respect? Consistent and honest reporting, community involvement, and a personal humility that his viewers could relate to. Olbermann and his ilk may make names for themselves, but they aren’t loved or respected.
I agree, Keith should have stayed with sports casting. I used to watch “Count Down” but Keith has gotten so rediculously biased and slanted that I just couldn’t stomache it anymore. He is nothing more than just another V-Jay cowboy doing anything for ratings. He is no longer credible in my book. MSNBC as a whole is just a joke.
Hell, no wonder Olbermann is going postal… his viewership numbers are so low it’s pathetic.
El Sabio (02:54:37) :
Sorry, I live in Spain. Can anyone explain who Keith Olbermann is exactly? From the video I can see he’s an idiot, but who is he?
El Sabio, there is nothing to add to what you have already deduced.
Many thanks for all of the links and information. I’m not a meteorologist but a Chemical Engineer so can provide no climate expertise but I’ll enjoy reading nonetheless. In my job and at home I do what I can to minimise energy use because it makes sense but even with my limited knowledge of climatology I have realised that the AGW proponents have got it wrong and, frighteningly, the politicians have picked up the baton, they love it. Keep up the good work.
“The next day Olbermann effectively apologised to Wakefield after thousands of parents of autistic kids emailed in to point out that the vaccine science is far from settled, and that Brian Deer’s journalistic standards and alterior motives were far from transparent.”
Maybe these political commentators should stay away from science issues altogether. The “MMR vaccine/thimerasol causes autism” theory has been widely discredited. This is one issue where the science is settled. Much research into autism is now looking at genetics. There is definitely a group of parents who are desperate to place the blame somewhere. That doesn’t make their beliefs about vaccines any more correct than the beliefs of the AGW alarmists. Autistic people existed before the invention of vaccines. The majority of autistic people themselves don’t believe in the vaccine theory.
Olbermann is simply a liberal Limbaugh. They’re both equally repulsive.
I used to watch his Countdown show, it was amusing at first. But then he became another sanctimonius, rhetoric-spewing talking head.
Steve Sloan (06:15:37) :
“Keith went to an affiliated state college at Cornell, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences”
Would this not qualify him to speak on the problem of bovine flatulence?
Andrew P.: What’s an alterior motive?
Mr. Dellagatto should feel a certain sense of pride. The roster of former recipients of Olbermann’s bile is a fairly select group including virtually anyone who has had the temerity to challenge any leftist dogma. The irony of Olbermann’s almost daily awarding of the Worst Person in the World honor is that the trophy should have long ago been permanently riveted to his own mantle.
I remember his tenure at ESPN and he wasn’t that great there either, already displaying the penchant for pompous windbaggery that he has now developed to Himalayan proportions.
I’d be wary of casting aspersions on specific secondary instutions. Any college, regardless of its alledged prestige, presents nothing more than a formatted roadmap to learning, and hopefully, critical thinking with a bunch of memorization and acronyms thrown in. Here is an example of one national ranking service for agricultural schools:
1 University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL
2 Cornell University Ithaca, NY
3 Texas A&M University–College Station College Station, TX
4 Iowa State University Ames, IA
5 Purdue University–West Lafayette West Lafayette, IN
University of California–Davis Davis, CA
7 University of Florida Gainesville, FL
8 Ohio State University–Columbus Columbus, OH
Pennsylvania State University–University Park University Park, PA
10 North Carolina State University–Raleigh Raleigh, NC
The value of your education is based on decisions you make while learning, including effort, honesty, integrity, priorities, drinking, etc. Keith evidently focused on fame and money, not critical thinking.
Incidently, most of the problems this country is experiencing were initiated by Ivy league grads.
We hate it when we are called irrelevant by the other side. It is one way the AGW scare is so far ahead of the skeptics side. It is a tactic well-known for its effectiveness. If you have nothing to say that can be substantiated by an unbiased view of observations and facts, or you just haven’t done your homework, you call the other side irrelevant. Meaning you don’t have to debate the question. Win by default. The way out of this way-out-of-hand alarmism is dangerously hampered by each side calling the other irrelevant.
re: Don S (09:18:55) :
If the ulterior motive is discovered and exposed you can always switch to an alterior motive? Keep ’em guessing?
re: Martin Mason (00:05:55) :
Can anybody explain to me why the AGW industry becomes more irrational and shrill in its findings and demands given the logical arguments that appear to be gradually demolishing their belief and the evidence on the ground? Their intolerant attitude has lost any possible support from me.
The explanation, Martin, is that it is not about science. I’m a sociologist and started researching AGW/CC over a year ago because of that shrillness. I wanted to see if there was a rational counter-argument to the consensus/settled science. The issue here is about equity, fairness and change. A radical change to a more just and sustainable society. It is a movement that is fundamentally anti-Western Culture and anti-American. People chortle in these “denialist” sites about how the wheels are coming off AGW science. That may be true, but the politics are settled. The current administration knows what it wants to do and is orchestrating events that will allow it do it. They also know that they have a limited window of opportunity. Look for 1960’s style radical action very shortly.
Anthony
Like Jerry Lee Davis (06:59:10), I also put an earlier version of a short story I wrote into the comments section of one of your earlier postings. But given the conjunction of the topics of Keith Olbermann and global warming, I thought it might be relevant here. If you deem it redundant or too long, just zap it.
Keep up the good work,
Reed Coray
PMSNBC News Alert
Dateline: Hell, 17 November 2008
Editor’s note: In our ongoing search for sensationalism and stories that promote socialism, Keith Obermouth, who came sooooooo close to getting Tim Russert’s old job, has secured an exclusive telephone interview with the Prince Of Darkness Himself. A transcript of that interview is printed below in its entirety (well, maybe we did a little editing, but only to make the story more sensationalistic and disconcerting to our readers, and as always to further socialism). Note to the typesetter, please remove the immediately foregoing parenthetical phrase prior to printing.
Obermouth: “Has anthropogenic global warming (AGW) impacted Hell in any way?”
Devil: “Yes and no. No in that man’s impact on the temperature of the earth’s surface is at most miniscule, and to date the temperature of Hell hasn’t risen at all. In fact, over the last year our measurements tell us that Hell, like earth, has become slightly cooler; but that is obviously incorrect because the National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA] tells us the earth is getting warmer. We’ll have to modify our temperature measuring techniques. Fortunately, that will be easy because when Dr. James Hansen of NASA joins us in the near future we’ll use his expertise in the matter. I would like to add that people like Dr. Hansen who look for and find disaster in every environmental change, ascribe non-existent human causes to those changes, and promote societal programs that benefit themselves but not only don’t address the non-existent causes of the non-existent disasters do actual harm to mankind are kindred spirits of mine.
“Yes in that the fear of AGW is producing early arrivals. Deaths from non-refrigerated spoiled food, malnutrition, freezing, etc. are increasing at a rapid rate, and we expect the trend to continue. The situation is similar to the DDT scare, which wasn’t perfect but on the whole was one of my better ideas. We netted several million early arrivals with that one. It would have been perfect, but the law of unintended consequences bit me on the butt. The early arrivals weren’t very good workers because their bodies and souls were racked with disease. Getting them into shape to do my work strained my resources. However, in the case of ‘AGW scare’ early arrivals, the outlook is brighter. Malnutrition is much easier to fix than malaria. And the thawing out of frozen bodies is trivial for us to handle.”
Obermouth: “So you think the AGW scare will impact Hell in the future?”
Devil: “Yes, in fact we’re making plans for the future. Like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], we use computer models and they predict the early arrival of 30,000,000 souls. Our models show that the transition of energy production from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, whatever the Hell those are, will result in the early deaths of 15,000,000 at a minimum and may reach as high as 45,000,000. As a result, we are expediting completion of our new wing to accommodate the expected 30,000,000 early arrivals. However, unlike the IPCC computer models used to predict global temperatures, our models accurately predict the future not the past. Of course there’s a downside to those early arrivals. It’s a well known fact that the longer a person lives the more likely he is to commit a mortal sin. Thus, shortening an individual’s life decreases the probability that he/she will join us in Shangri-La. But as the old saying goes, ‘a burning log in the stove is better than two on the wood pile’.”
Obermouth: “From what you say and given the rhetoric of former Vice President Al Gore, Dr. Hansen and Dr. Pachauri of the IPCC, I infer they are spokespersons for your organization. Is that correct?”
Devil: “No, and you can believe me on this one. That’s not to say they won’t grace me with their presence at some time in the future. I’ll accept help from any source; but hey, you insult me by implying I would consciously employ such incompetent boobs. Why just the other day, the organization headed by that idiot Hansen duplicated for October some September 2008 temperatures from Russia; and as a result his mouthpiece, Dr. Pachauri, claimed the earth’s surface was getting hotter faster than anyone expected. When this mishandling of the data became general knowledge, it set our work back several months. It wasn’t fatal to our cause, but it hurt. When I get my hooves on Drs. Hansen and Pachauri, I’ll teach them what for.”
Obermouth: “Are you implying that Al Gore, Dr. Hansen, and Dr. Pachauri are headed to Hell?”
Devil: “Duh! And I was told you were smart. I’ll have to reprimand my call screener. Of course they’re headed to Hell. Do you really think my Political Opponent wants to associate with buffoons that do MY work? He’s afraid that if the global warming alarmist crowd gets to Heaven, it will try to convince the inhabitants that Heaven is heating up and will soon be indistinguishable from Hell. In a secret protocol, I have agreed to take the lot of them off His hands when the time comes in return for which He won’t interfere with their earthly preaching.
“Their arrival in Hell will, however, require that I change both my official name and my headquarters. With all the hot air messieurs Gore, Hansen, and Pachauri will bring to Hell, Hell will become so hot our walls will emit sufficient visible light so that I’ll be known as the Prince Of Lightness, not the Prince of Darkness. Then when energy production transitions from fossil fuel to ‘green’ sources, I won’t have enough power to run my personal air conditioner; and like Al Gore, just how much inconvenience can a savior of the world be expected to suffer? As a result, I’ll have to move my headquarters to one of the outer planets.”
Obermouth: “Thank you for your time. I wish you well.”
Devil: “You’re welcome. And by the way, as of today a permanent replacement for Tim Russert hasn’t been named. Maybe we can work out a deal–I’m known for that you know. Hold on a second while I check my records. (very short pause) Forget it. I don’t need to waste a deal on you.”
Don S (09:18:55): – good question – I think it’s a spelling mistake.
Chuck (08:28:38): I didn’t mention thimerisol (which isn’t in MMR and never has been) but that said it is still a big issue with regard to vaccine safety. This isn’t the place but I can assure you that the science is not settled. If you doubt me google for the minutes of the CDC’s secret Simpsonwood conference in 2000, where they decided to cover up rather than go public on the truth about thimerisol (ethyl mercury) in vaccines. As for your suggestion that it is all genetics – it’s true that there is very likely a genetic component, and that it will be the kids with this genetic susceptibility will be the most likely to regress into autism, but the evidence clearly suggests an environmental trigger. In any case you can not have a genetic epidemic, it is an impossiblity. Autism rates were about 1 in 10,000 25 years ago, they are now around 1 in 100. And this rise correlates very closly with the increased number of vaccines on the CDC’s recommdened vaccine schedule. If this epidemic was not vaccine related, there would have to be 100 of thousands of old people with autism, and there clearly isn’t. And before you say it’s all down to improved diagnosis, that’s not what they found in California. See http://www.jdeclanflynn.com/uploads/autismweb/index.html for a summary of a recent conference on mercury in Florida. Sadly climateology is not the only sphere in science which has been corrupted for political / corporate ends – http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2003/dec/07/health.businessofresearch – and the supposed safety of mercury presrevatives and aluminium adjuvants in vaccines is far from proven.
Its nice to see so many people making great , intelligent, questioning comments about AGW. We are all supposed to suffereing from some denial delusion, in the pay of Exxon or Flat Earth beleivers, when I truth I suspect quite the reverse is true.
If somebody could demonstrate to me that AGW was significantly happening, and it was a problem, I would glady cut my Co2 emmissions ( altough I’m fairly good anyway– my Harley mcycle does about 55 mpg and my diesel VW about 45mpg, I have lots of energy effiecent bulbs etc and dont live a lavish lifestyle)
During the build up to World War 2, the Nazi employed similar media tricks, any dissent was ruthlessly put down and you were only allowed to think the party line.
I believe with AGW there are several forces at wotk, the left wing, tree hugger desire to have everyone live in a mud hut, but also the big buisness spinners trying to start another ” dot.com” rush in which some made millions and scarpered
Tim, you turned your excellent remark, “I’d be wary of casting aspersions on specific secondary instutions”, into a hypocritical after-taste when you ended your post with, “Incidently, most of the problems this country is experiencing were initiated by Ivy league grads.”
Substantiate, as you did with your excellent first remark, or call your last remark unsubstantiated opinion.
At the moment Keith Olbermann’s overall viewers are 1.5 mil vs 4.0 mil for O’Reilly. Within the 25 – 54 age range the comparison is about 500K vs 800K. The four big cable news networks have very similar numbers. CNN: 96.93, CNBC: 95.13, FNC: 94.55, MSNBC: 91.59 (all in millions).
I think he misses as often as he hits, but it is either ignorance or misrepresentation to say that Keith Olbermann or any particular news channel is “irrelevant”.
The clip in question highlighted three people, #3 – a Fox News Channel commentator apparently equating stem cell research policy to a step towards eugenics and baby harvesting, #2 – the aforementioned “weather anecdotes as counter-proof of AGW” guy, and #1 a Democrat who thought “animal husbandry” is something unsavory (now that’s actually funny). So Steven Goddard’s focus here at WUWT is factual, but… selective.
David Ball (06:43:23): “The election here for Prime Minister was a clear message from the Canadian people that we don’t believe the BS ( bad science) they are trying to shove down our throats.” (and various complaints about Canadian media) Ah, clarity. (Aside: there is no “election for Prime Minister” in the Canadian political system.) The Canadian federal election wasn’t really fought on environmental issues, was it? The Conservatives campaigned mainly on “leadership”, the opposition parties mainly on “economic failure”. On environmental issues, for better or worse all parties tripped over themselves to claim the CO2 reduction high ground. The end result was a roughly 1% increase in the Conservative Party’s popular vote (to 38%) but a significant improvement of their minority government’s number of seats.
It is fascinating how perfectly rational people are duped by so-called scientists who insist the planet is warming up! The planet is cooling down, not warming up.
All you have to do is look in your refrigerator: Does your food get more humid or less humid as it sits in your refrigerator? It gets less humid, doesn’t it?
Now think about this: Lower humidity causes lower temperature (else your refrigerator would not be cold when your food dries up). Our snow mass is decreasing, which means our atmosphere is drying up (the snow is evaporating because the air is dryer), causing the temperature to drop (since less humidity causes lower temperatures – check your refrigerator!)
One can only hope that in four years from now priorities will be set straight and science will once again return to the realm of common sense.
Keith Olbermann isn’t worth spit.
You have idiots on both sides of the media. I’ve seen some pretty outrageous things from the O’reilly/Coulter crowd, and I have seen some outrageous things from the KO/DailyKos crowd.
It’s like linking an article about the record cold in New England, and not saying a word about the record heat in Australia.
The problem with the climate change conversation is that it is not a conversation at all. You get folks in one camp and folks in the other and they don’t talk to each other. They just write each other off because they are a “warmist” or a “denialist” and everyone losses.
Ben
The canard that global warming causes local cooling is so strange that the only thing more ludicrous is the explanations. For example, warming causes precipitation and rain is cold. Simply childish. does global cooling cause local heat waves?
Here is a lay take on AGW skeptics being labeledhttp://deathby1000papercuts.com/2009/03/global-warming-skeptics-under-attack-labeled-as-having-mental-disorder/ deranged.