UPDATE: BBC (and now the Independent) commit the same FAIL. See below.
More “Row to the Pole” nonsense writ large:
Ummmm…no, Mr. Hough, the Telegraph’s headline and story are simply wrong. You are a victim of spin and/or a failed geography lesson.
First congratulations, to the RttP team for reaching their destination, which is not a pole of any kind, much less the actual “North Pole”. I didn’t think they would make it.
As I explained before the trip even started, there’s no “pole” achievement here, not even close. They are 738 KM short of the actual magnetic pole. The 1996 magnetic pole doesn’t exist there anymore and thus can’t be a pole of any kind.
The Telegraph article says:
The successful trip to the Pole, described as the “greatest ocean rows of all time”, was only possible because of more seasonal ice-melt in the Arctic that has opened the waters up.
No mention of the fact that they aren’t even close. The actual North pole is 790 miles away:
The FAIL is strong with this one. h/t to reader “Angry Exile”
And the BBC is in on the act of shoddy journalism too:
Kitefreak says:
BBC reporting that the Pultney rowing expedition has reached “the north pole”. Reported on Radio Scotland at 8am (main news bulletin) and on the news website http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-14665937
Absolutely no mention on the radio or the website that it’s the magnetic north pole from ’96, no, they just say the folks have rowed TO THE NORTH POLE.
Pure propaganda.
UPDATE: The BBC commits the same FAIL here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9573000/9573302.stm
What a bunch of liars.
UPDATE2: The load of porkies continues…now the Independent repeats the lie.
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The organizers must have counted on the press misrepresenting this feat as being a trek to THE North Pole–and most likely engaged in dissembling to the press to encourage this mislabeling.
Any sour grapes in here?
Congratulate these guys on what must have been an awesome adventure.
I don’t see why these guys should get the credit for what I did last weekend. OK I was a few miles short as well but the media simply refused to report my triumph. Maybe I was drinking the wrong whisky? Anyway I’m off to the South Pole now, I’ve fitted new rowlocks to the armchair and should be back in time for dinner.
>>Laurie Ridyard says: August 26, 2011 at 3:58 pm
>>I am a bit perplexed by your “mouse navigation” heading for the True North
>>Pole- given as 016 deg. The heading for the True North Pole from anywhere
>>is 360 or 000 deg.
Headings are given in Magnetic, because you cannot navigate True headings. So the heading given is 16 deg east of Magnetic North.
.
The story of the Mutiny on the Bounty back in 1789 (see also the movie).
The mutineers provided Bligh and eighteen loyal crewmen with a 23 foot (7m) launch (so heavily loaded that the gunwales were only a few inches above the water). They were given four cutlasses, enough food and water to reach the most accessible ports, a quadrant and a compass, but no charts, sextant or Marine chronometer. The launch could not hold all the loyal crew members, so four were detained on the Bounty for their useful skills; they were later released at Tahiti.…
Bligh had confidence in his navigational skills, which he had perfected under the instruction of Captain Cook. His first responsibility was to survive and get word of the mutiny as soon as possible to British vessels that could pursue the mutineers. Thus, he undertook the seemingly impossible 3,618 nautical mile (6,701 km) voyage to Timor. In this remarkable act of seamanship, Bligh succeeded in reaching Timor after a 47-day voyage, the only casualty being the crewman killed on Tofua.
Row to not the pole? Greatest ocean row of all time my posterior!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Bligh
Emailthe churnalist from here
http://journalisted.com/andrew-hough#tab-contact
Kitefreak says:
August 26, 2011 at 12:20 am
BBC reporting that the Pultney rowing expedition has reached “the north pole”. Reported on Radio Scotland at 8am (main news bulletin) and on the news website http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-14665937
Absolutely no mention on the radio or the website that it’s the magnetic north pole from ’96, no, they just say the folks have rowed TO THE NORTH POLE.
Pure propaganda.
——————————————————————————————————
When I checked the BBC website again at lunchtmie yesterday I noted that the story and the headline had been changed (corrected) at 10:11am UK time.
The thing is, the damage had already been done, people misinformed and left believing that ‘adventurers’ had rowed to the north pole.
And the radio broadcasts will never been undone.
Brian says:
August 26, 2011 at 11:29 pm
Brian, I think you are new to this.
Some of us have been puking, for many, many years, from the obvious junk being forced down our throats. Not just the impossible tipping of the climate into a catastrophe via CO2.
We will be crowing for a long time as all this rubbish is exposed as politics with near-zero science attached. These fools are just the latest faces of the “useful idiot” pushed at us by creatures who care not for you, yours or anyone but themselves and their agenda.
I have had a few laughs already, with many more anticipated, but they are tinged with pain as the unforseen side-effects of this scam have hurt/killed people all over the globe and damaged science and environmentalism.
Not “sour grapes”, The extraction of urine.
Jordan says:
August 26, 2011 at 1:10 pm
Oh I see 🙁 I did not got your point in the first posting even if “they will reach the pole and continue north from there” should have been enough for a hint.
Sometimes the warmistas have so little sense of humour that they would really mean that…
Well first of all well done to rowing to where they did, an island hardly anyone knows the name of offhand, I didn’t think they would even make that!
The rest really is a bit of a con though, people should not try to spin things which are not so to get publicity.
Andy
The latter few posts are amusing with you Yanks bitching over what is Scotch/Scottish and whisky/whiskey, for a Limey you just have to laugh and get rat-arsed on the stuff!
The Oz has it as well, with ‘1996’ no ref to it being only half way there for today North pole. No comments either.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/british-crew-first-to-row-to-magnetic-north-pole/story-fn3dxity-1226123292517
Whether they did or did not reach their stated destination is immaterial (as indeed is much of the irate comment here), they are reported by the MSM to have achieved their goal and that is the message to the public that will be front and centre. Anger here although quite justified, will not change public perception one iota.
As a cheap publicity stunt to publicise the widespread ignorance of geography in the media, I’d like to announce my forthcoming expedition by hang glider to the West Pole.
Sponsors wanted!
“mkelly says:
August 26, 2011 at 10:47 am
You folks are a little too hard on these men. Haven’t any of you had a small dram too much of Old Pulteney (or any libation) and not been sure exactly where you were? Come on fess up.”
We aren’t bothered about the men, best of luck to them and if they’d done this for charity I would be delighted. But the implications of this ‘north pole’ issue are massive in the general public’s perception of agw. That and the lack of any journalistic integrity is what concerns us.
Don’t drink and row.
“Ralph says:
August 26, 2011 at 11:41 pm
>>Laurie Ridyard says: August 26, 2011 at 3:58 pm
>>I am a bit perplexed by your “mouse navigation” heading for the True North
>>Pole- given as 016 deg. The heading for the True North Pole from anywhere
>>is 360 or 000 deg.
Headings are given in Magnetic, because you cannot navigate True headings. So the heading given is 16 deg east of Magnetic North.”
It did not specify Magnetic North. In any event , being so close to the Magnetic pole Magnetic Compasses would be virtually useless.
I didn’t see Lord Kelvin’s Balls in any of the photos of their boat.
Chris Smith says:
August 26, 2011 at 3:33 pm
Welcome to 1984. Climate Change BS is not the worse of it. Have you seen the BBC “reports” on the war crimes in Libya?
———————————————————————————–
[snip – this is way off topic even if it is well desrved ~jove, mod]
As you say Chris, the climate change stuff is not the worst of it – not by any means.
And now the Australian SBS are reporting the misinformation …… I’m sending a formal complaing, worded as follows.
Dear SBS Ombudsman,
I was watching SBS news and saw reported that a group of climate awareness activists had “rowed to the magnetic north pole.”
This is entirely incorrect as the position they rowed too is not the Magnetic North Pole. The actual Magnetic North Pole as of year 2011 is actually 738 km further North.
The place these activists rowed to, or near to, was the Magnetic North Pole in 1996 and being over 700 km closer to temperate waters is often “ice free” as compared to the current Magnetic North Pole.
What was reported was in essence, Climate Propaganda and not News, for not only is it wrong, it is couched in such a way as to politicize a particular political view on the climate system that is not confirmed by science and thus does not represent the views on this topic in any fair or meaningful way as far as the public interest is concerned.
I would wish to see this piece of misinformation corrected so that everyone concerned understands that these rowers, did not row to where the actual Magnetic North Pole is….. Because that Magnetic North Pole is currently entirely Ice Bound and thus an unattainable destination to a seagoing vessel being rowed.
Hoping for a resolution to this…… Jason Mark Hansford.
i have been an active rower all my adult life. The rowing crowd I know are hard training, sensible sorts who would be ashamed to be associated with such a blatent stunt and even more ashamed once they learn of the hi jack of their achievement in getting so far. I hope that the ARA in the UK does not fall foul of this silliness and align itself with stunt.
And to help save the planet they are leaving the rowboat there to be picked up at a later stage and moving to an area where they can be picked up by an aeroplane (presumably manned by a crew frantically flapping their arms)
After reading the comments in Telegraph, I’m really dismayed by the basic premise of the people who are cheering the expedition. Aside from the obviously fallacious nature of this particular expedition, why do so many people cheer any completely useless, expensive and dangerous endeavor?
Even if they had actually made it to the Pole, what in the world would they accomplish? How would they improve the lives of actual humans? The Pole has been reached before, so it’s not even a journey of discovery. Nothing invented, no jobs created, no new species found. Nothing.
Just a sense of completion for a few rich people whose lives are apparently empty without it.
Pretty much the same thing as the widespread cheering for manned spaceflight. Empty glory.
You have to remember the WHOLE point of this exercise was so they could reach the target and then issue a headline saying “just rowed to the north pole”.
Don’t worry though …. the fact that this kind of spin is required is comforting for those who actually believe in truth.
The BBC’s got it right at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-14665937 but still absurdly misleading at http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9573000/9573302.stm
I have used the “Contact us” facility to pinpoint the mistake.
This story reminds me of an old geography conundrum. At the beginning of an exploratory adventure, you see a sleeping bear near your tent when you get up on the very first morning. Then you commence your expedition, always traveling directly to the West. You have every imaginable piece of equipment to make this possible. This includes climbing gear, winches, inflatable rafts, good whiskey, etc. After traveling 1500 miles (2400 km), always in the West direction, you eventually return to your starting point, and you see the same sleeping bear. Question: What color is the bear?