The amount of hate directed at me today due to my appearance on PBS yesterday has been, in climate parlance, “unprecedented”. Most of the objections were not with what I said, but rather that I was allowed to speak at all. Apparently my mere presence in the broadcast has caused such a firestorm of complaints to PBS that they had to put up an apology piece. It is truly bizarre behavior on display. Even more bizarre is the fact that after 230 comments, my comment requesting a couple of simple spelling corrections still has not been approved nor acted upon. This is what my browser shows me today, note the yellow highlight:
Admittedly, I misspelled typographical in my haste to notify them of problems in their own article, but I never expected them to flat out ignore it. Here’s my screencap from yesterday; shortly after the article went up when there were only two comments besides mine:
My request was for them to fix errors that likely resulted in transcription, either by a human transcriptionist unfamiliar with the science, or speech to text software that made the wrong word choice.
My requested corrections were:
heat sync ===> should be ===> heat sink
and
sighting issues ===> should be ===> siting issues
another that I didn’t mention that should be fixed is:
solar insulation ===> should be ===> solar insolation
But I guess they were too busy responding to threats to cancel donations, angry and sometimes hateful comments, and writing appeasement articles to sooth the fan base to worry about such trivialities.
For the record, here is what I sent to PBS Correspondent Spencer Michels today:
From: Anthony
Date: Tuesday, September 18, 2012 9:48 AM
To: smichels@xxxxxx.xxx
Subject: Thank you
Hello Spencer,
Overall I’m pleased with the results of your work yesterday, and while some people have emotions ranging from quibbles to outrage about it, I’m appreciative, as are many, that you fought to have me included.
Most of the complaints I’ve seen haven’t much to do with the content of what I said but mostly over the fact that I was allowed to speak at all.
When my new paper is published, I’ll include you on the release list. After going through our second round of review, I’m confident that our results will hold up, and that there is a bias in the surface temperature record, creating an increased temperature trend due to station siting issues.
Thank you again for your fair representation.
Best Regards,
Anthony Watts
I’ll have more to say on this episode later. Right now I’m just reeling from the hate sent my way for daring to express an opinion at the invitation of PBS.
Here’s an example from the “Forecast the Facts” paid political organization who bullies TV weathercasters into saying what they want:
“On September 17, 2012, PBS Newshour provided an unchecked platform for Anthony Watts, a virulent climate change denier funded by the Heartland Institute. This is the kind of reporting we expect from Fox News, not PBS. Please join us in calling on the PBS ombudsman to immediately investigate how this segment came to be aired and recommend corrective action to make sure a journalistic abomination like this never happens again.
The Petition – Below is the petition we’ll send to PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler: “Immediately investigate the NewsHour segment featuring climate change denier and conspiracy theorist Anthony Watts for violations of PBS standards on accuracy, integrity, and transparency, and recommend corrective action to ensure that such reporting never again occurs on PBS.”
“…featuring climate change denier and conspiracy theorist Anthony Watts”
Gosh, I suppose they didn’t read this part of the interview:
SPENCER MICHELS: His conclusion though is that basically global warming exists and that the scientists, no matter what the problems were, were pretty much right on.
ANTHONY WATTS: I agree with him that global warming exists. However, the ability to attribute the percentage of global warming to CO2 versus other man-made influences is still an open question.
or this:
ANTHONY WATTS: I’m saying that the data might be biased by these influences to a percentage. Yes, we have some global warming, it’s clear the temperature has gone up in the last 100 years. But what percentage of that is from carbon dioxide? And what percentage of that is from changes in the local and measurement environment?
What am I denying?
Well done Anthony,You clearly struck a nerve.
Does Ranulph Fiennes realise it is now minus 119 degrees in the Antarctic ?
Don’t whinge on this blog. Instead write to PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler at http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman /feedback.html and tell him what a great job Anthony has done and how the PBS is required to offer a balanced view.
Thanks for putting yourself out there Anthony, I am sorry for the vitriol that you have to put up with.
MonktonofOz says:September 19, 2012 at 3:43 am Thanks for the link, the whole link did not get activated and there is an extra space after “ombudsman” that needs to be removed. You are right, PBS needs positive feedback WRT Anthony.
To quote the USAF saying:
“If you’re not taking flak, you’re not over the target.”
I want to thank you for your continued heroic efforts.
That message from ‘Forecast The Facts’ calling for Team Warmist to boycott PBS is chilling in it’s Orwellian overtones. I’m genuinely shocked anyone – especially in the US (and I speak as a Brit) – could be openly calling for the closing down of legitimate debate in such an unashamedly brazen way. What happened to ‘freedom of expression’? I thought yours was the ‘Land of the Free’?
This is how it goes with the CAGW zealots. This is why all climate skeptics, everywhere, need to resist these morons – because they are potentially dangerous morons who want to take away our freedoms in the name of ‘sustainability’ or ‘renewables’ or whatever this week’s fashionable term for CAGW might be,
Stay strong, Anthony – your interview was a resounding success. It clearly has the alarmists rattled – your confident, calm, reasoned rationale has obviously sent a shockwave through the already nervous ranks of warmists – who, as we all know, are never willing at all to face their critics in a public forum. Keep on keeping on.
All I can say is that the fiercest debates rage where there is little evidence to support a proposition. Persecution is used in theology and not in arithmetic on this basis.
I’d definitely place the vitriol in the dark ages, and not in the human reason stage of development.
Those who complained about Anthony to PBS, they all still drive cars and use electricity and eat food and exhale CO2 and have kids and pets and heat their homes and use A/C, etc. They are all CO2 producers just like the people they call “deniers”. They say one thing but do something else. They are the ones who I find outrageous.
Hmm, they can’t even spell meteorologist correctly in their pop-up caption…..
Anthony Watts
Meterologist…..
Hang in there Anthony. One measure of your effectiveness is the intensity of the opposition’s reaction. The greater the reaction, the better the job you have done.
Take care and stay up there on the ramparts for all of us.
It is the Left modus operandi. Thuggery.
No one should be surprised by this.
A question, are the comments saying that they should never have allowed you to speak actually representative of the comments they have actually recieved, or only representative of the comments they allow people to view? It is quite easy to skew the apperent reaction of people by only actually posting negative comments about including Watts. This is suggested by their not posting your corrections post, which shows that they are not posting some, possibly many, comments. They may not wish to post comments that say “we screwed up”, or to correct the errors because they may make you look bad (they want that), or post any comment pro Watts because “the narrative” is warmers good denialists bad/stupid/wrong/not-real-scientists.
The important point in getting away with blatent propaganda is not what you say, but what you carefully don’t say.
Anthony, I note that in the apology piece the posts approving of your stance consistently garner three to five times as many ‘likes’ as the posts complaining about it.
Strikes me the Watermelons are getting desperate, hence their increasingly disproportionately hysterical response to any criticism – especially well informed criticism – of their increasingly untenable position.
The game is up, and they know it.
Keep up the good work, Anthony, we’re winning – in no small part as a result of your efforts.
What are you denying? You’re denying them the successful implementation of their political agenda. Well done. Keep on keeping on.
You were great. Their sensitivity to you just shows you how weak their arguments are.
The only part I disagree with you is when you talked about GW as a “problem”. Putting CO2 in the air is not a problem. You know the arguments.
Again, great job and thanks for the work you do.
Cheers
Legatus says: “The important point in getting away with blatent propaganda is not what you say, but what you carefully don’t say.”
That needs to be said twice (and in bold).
Well done and congratulations. You can see them circling the wagons as we speak.
….and Anthony:
The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.
&
Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.”
Sir Winston Churchill
You are a gentleman and a scholar, the statement that you are NOT a scientist, as defined, High priest of Climatology? makes the apologists look ignorant.
Enjoy the hate, you obviously have provided truth to self doubt. This level of violence is insecurity writ large as no one with faith in their views gets unhinged so quickly.
My impression is truth trumps hysteria and you are winning the debate. Thank you for your tireless work donation follows.
Anthony,
I glad you got a taste of what it feels like to be called a ‘conspiracy theorist’ for simply asking questions. It seems like you have dismissed and labelled people here on you’re blog for calling into question other so called ‘truth’s’. I am still hopeful that you’re intelligence will reveal the bigger picture eventually and the incredible fall out from the PBS show should help enlighten your path towards that. Maybe.
Anthony, it made me sick when I read about this. I had to put it in perspective:
http://www.r8ny.com/blog/vincent_nunes/censoring_a_voice_of_reason.html
I thought you were eminently sensible and measured in your interview, Anthony. Congratulations.
As my interest in the field of climate science is rapidly gravitating towards cultic studies and the group psychology of a sizeable population adhering to absolutist and totalitarian meme structures and with substantial influence over governments, I hope you’ll consider displaying a sample of the hate mail you’ve received, redacting the names or not, as you feel appropriate .
I’m struck by the totalitarian nature of the Joe Romm sycophants on that thread. My comment to the apology thread (which looks like it’s not going to make it through moderation) was this sardonic taunt, which includes a link to the No Pressure 10:10 video where those not adequately vigilant in cutting their carbon emissions are blown up in gory splats:
—-
To those of you appalled that PBS would allow even one voice of dissent on climate change, if complaining doesn’t do it for you, and if withholding your money during the next pledge drive doesn’t quite do it for you, you can always push the No Pressure button:
Go ahead, push the button. You know you want to.
—-
Don’t let the PBStards grind you down.
All ‘mainstream media’ are the same. Gerald Celente calls them “presstitutes”. They’re all singin’ off the same hymn sheet, and you ain’t on it, to paraphrase George Carlin.
I can’t believe the lengths they are going to. You were the most correct person they interviewed.
Crazy world!!
It was never about freedom of speech. It was always about power and control.
Anthony,
I did some quick research for you relating to a nasty AGW jihadist who calls himself SecularAnimist, who has been busy slandering you over at the PBS website. Like all warmies, he demonstrates a knack for cognitive dissonance through blatant hypocrisy by having the gall to use the word slander while he does exactly that!
NOTE: This is found on the PBS website as the 26th comment in this thread on the first page when sorted by oldest to newset. That direct link to the comment does not work since it is a discus site, with its retarded ‘newest first’ sort order and it shows only a short pagefull at a time.
Anyway, this toilet bug called “SecularAnimist” apparently has not ever had the courage to post here at WUWT ( perhaps he fears you will have his IP address ), but his name has come up in discussions on at least 5 different threads ( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ).
As I have been so fond of pointing out lately: The conspiracy theorists almost always on the warmie side. Those that are most likely to believe in Roswell UFO’s, grassy knoll shooters, faked moon landings, 9/11 WTC inside job by Cheney and the Jews, will also believe in Global Warming from the magic molecule. They are Roseanne Barr and occupy Wall Street IQ level. They are Socialist malcontents, hardwired in their DNA to accept government control. They are the AGW target audience.
… and the proofs abound. Let’s see if we cannot find more stuff from this bitter malcontent “SecularAnimist”. Hmmmm, at YouTube he seems to have his own page ( asterisks added by me ) …
Is it any surprise that this cretin called “SecularAnimist” regularly comments at RealClimate? A website that moderates out almost all skeptic commentary regularly accepts and publishes the mindless rambling of this ugly child.
This is the type of person attracted to AGW. They know full well it is the expressway to Socialism which they adore and are working towards 24/7/365. These are the kinds of cretins you want to keep away from your daughters and everything else you care about. Needless to say, these are the types of people to keep out of elected office, they are President DingleBarry’s core constitutency. Never, ever vote for a Leftist, Socialist, Neo-Marxist, Neo-Communist, Green Watermellon or any combination thereof!
P.S. I posted this to both current PBS threads.