Mail Perfect Climate Storm

The release last week of emails from the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU) has, as I noted earlier, excited James “saviour of Western Civilisation” Delingpole and his devoted echo chamber of followers at Telegraph blogs (Sid and Doris Bonkers). But very few others were listening – until the Dacre hackery discovered they could use the release to kick the BBC.

Cometh the hour, cometh the hack, and if it’s the Mail, that hack is David Rose, whose name appears on the only partly fictitious piece headed “BBC sought advice from global warming scientists on economy, drama, music ... and even game shows”. But Rose undermines his own case from the outset by his need to hedge – because he can’t stand up his case.

So readers get “apparent bid to block climate change sceptics ... appear to have been stolen ... the Climategate 2 emails suggest”. But not to fear, Rose has an ace up his sleeve: “BBC insiders say the close links between the Corporation and the UEA’s two climate science departments ... have had a significant impact on its coverage”. Really? Do go on.

“Following their lead has meant the whole thrust and tone of BBC reporting has been that the science is settled, and that there is no need for debate,” one journalist said. “If you disagree, you’re branded a loony”. Hold it right there Mr R – you gave the game away with the “science is settled” line. The science is never settled. The “one journalist” is none other than David Rose.

And the “BBC insiders” are also David Rose. That can be justified in the case of complaint by saying that “insider” does not actually mean someone who works for the Corporation, merely a person who has seen “inside” Television Centre. There is much more in the article, but inserting his fiction near the top, Rose suggests – entirely fraudulently – that there is dissent within the Beeb.

While readers are being deceived by this sleight of hand, Rose slips in more fiction, telling of “the fact that the world has not warmed for 15 years” (wrong), “A report from the BBC Trust compared climate change sceptics to the conspiracy theorists who blame America for 9/11”, and that “The Global Warming Policy Foundation should be given no air time” (see what it really said HERE).

Thus yet more agenda driven hackery. And it’s strange that the Mail’s owners are only too happy to boast of reducing their carbon footprint, while their papers spew out so much questionable product on the subject. Maybe that’s what Paul Dacre means when he talks of the “relationship with my readers”. He believes his readers don’t buy into climate change, so neither does the Mail.

And the BBC gets it in the neck, too. So that’s all right, then.