In March 2007, Channel 4 screened a fake/hoax documentary (fokumentary?) called The Great Global Warming Swindle.
And a lot of people fell for it. Unfortunately, some of the more, shall we put it “cerebrally challenged” saw fit to embarrass themselves into using it as an argument.
In the style of Obie from Family Guy: “Well, uh….there’s uhhhh…this man I uhhh…know from the pub and …uhh.. he saw this uhhhh…documentary on … uhhhh … channel ummmm four …. uuuuhhhh … vote Republican!”.
UPDATE: 25th July – Marcus Brigstocke from The Now Show comments on the judgement (more at the bottom of the post)
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Well, you get the idea. Anyhoo, they had their asses whipped by the regulator!
From The Times:
A Channel 4 documentary that argued that global warning was a fraud is to be criticised by the media regulator.
On Monday Ofcom is expected to publish a long-awaited report that upholds claims by some of the scientists who appeared in the programme last year that they were misrepresented.
The Great Global Warming Swindle, which aired in March last year, has been accused of downplaying the threat in the public mind. It sparked an outcry among environmentalists and many campaigners argue that the programme has contributed to people believing that the threat is not real.
It is understood that complaints by Carl Wunsch, a climate expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will be upheld
It misrepresented evidence about the threat of global warming and that it rehashed discredited arguments and skewed data and charts to make its arguments stand up. In the closing moments of the program a voiceover from the climate change sceptic Fred Singer claimed that the Chief Scientist of the UK had said that by the end of the century the only habitable place on the planet would be in the Antarctic and that “humanity may survive thanks to some breeding couples who moved to the Antarctic”.
Sir David has never made such a statement. It is thought that Mr Singer confused the comments with those made by the scientist James Lovelock, who infuriated many colleagues in the science community when he publicly questioned global warming.
From The Guardian:
The detail of the ruling is expected to criticise Channel 4 over some aspects of the controversial programme, made by the director Martin Durkin.
The programme was criticised by scientists, who claimed it fundamentally misrepresented the evidence about global warming, that it rehashed discredited old arguments and manipulated data and charts to make its case.
I heard Durkin being interviewed once – what a complete cock! When they put one argument to him, he threw his toys out of the pram and started being abusive.
Here’s the mp3version:
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And here it is on Youtube – but I disagree with him about China, though. China is by far the greatest threat and will overtake the USA as the world’s worst polluter (by country and capita) within a year or two.
More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/mar/04/comment.comment
http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2007/03/04/swindlewatch-07/
http://www.desmogblog.com/the-great-global-warming-swindle
http://adaisythroughconcrete.blogspot.com/2007/03/ok-now-im-cross.html
Tags: green, marcus-brigstocke, mp3, the-now-show
