Mini Ice Storm In Very Small Teacup

The last issue of the Mail On Sunday brought yet another article by David Rose, the subject being, predictably, that global warming, well, wasn’t. He attributes the coming of a “mini ice age” to “some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists”, which suggests gravitas. But much of the article yields only one name, Mojib Latif, who is a member of the IPCC. And, of course, there is the customary kicking of the BBC.

Unfortunately for the MoS, everything started to unravel in short order, despite the article being picked up by the website of Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse), which dutifully parroted the “30 year ice age” line, which it attributed to Latif, despite his not having said anything of the sort. However, Latif had by this time given notice that he had been – surprise, surprise – misrepresented by the MoS, and even the Fox article you see now has been amended (fortunately, the Mother Jones site has preserved some of the original).

By yesterday, media outlets on both sides of the Atlantic had questioned the veracity of the MoS article: Latif was featured in a Guardian piece, where he said “I believe in manmade global warming. I have said that if my name was not Mojib Latif it would be global warming." Elsewhere, MediaMatters for America, which specialises in rebutting right wing media misinformation, has also shown the MoS and Fox articles to be misleading.

So the empire of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre has been shown, once again, to play fast and loose with the facts in order to keep Middle England ignorant and frightened. But, as ever, the usual rule applies: any retraction would have to be prised out of the MoS, the PCC cannot or will not keep the tabloids in line, and in the meantime, the mud sticks.

Which, in Dacreland, is the name of the game.