Climate skeptics or realists are so often ignored or taken out of context by the news media it’s no longer shocking, but that doesn’t make it any less egregious.
On March 6, HBO’s Vice focused its entire program on melting ice in Antarctica. Vice is the same media group that embedded a reporter with ISIS and sponsored basketball player Dennis Rodman’s February 2013 trip to North Korea, according to The Washington Post.
The Antarctica episode of the program heavily favored climate alarmists, including Vice President Joe Biden’s attacks on “mindless” Republicans, and a series of scientists including NASA’s Gavin Schmidt and UC Irvine’s Dr. Eric Rignot.
While it did include interviews with two skeptics, Heartland Institute President Joe Bast and Climate Depot’s Marc Morano, both were undermined and belittled by Vice’s narrative in which co-founder and CEO Shane Smith accused them of working from the “new climate denier script.”
Morano was shown onscreen discussing the growth of sea ice, but then the Vice crew travels to South America and talks to many scientists.
Rignot takes a dig at people for mentioning growing sea ice saying, “there’s a little bit of confusion between the land ice and sea ice. They are totally different entities.”
The effect was to make Morano and any other skeptic look foolish. But according to Morano, he had spoken to Vice about BOTH land and sea ice and they chose to only use his sea ice remarks. He emailed Ahmad Noor at Vice on March 11 and told him the program “conflated” his remarks.
“In the broadcast you put in all these comments from me about ‘sea ice.’ Not land ice. Then you imply that I am confused on the difference between the two. On the contrary!” Morano said before encouraging Noor and the Vice team to “watch the full interview” because “I clearly made a distinction and even talked to the interviewer about how people get confused between the two.”
In his email, Morano also linked to a piece on Climate Depot listing years that media outlets have warned that Antarctica would melt and cause catastrophically rising sea levels. He found media claims from 1901, 1922, 1979, 1990, 2014 and 2015 that included warnings that London was “on the border of destruction” and in Washington, D.C. people would be able to tie up their boats to the Washington monument.
The full text of Morano’s email is below:
Hi Ahmad,
Just watched the show and I must say you conflated my comments. In the broadcast you put in all of these comments from me about 'sea ice.' Not land ice. Then you imply that I am confused on the difference between the two. On the contrary!
Please watch the full interview I gave you at the Heartland conference in DC, I clearly made a distinction and even talked to the interviewer about how people get confused between the two.
Here is my latest report on Antarctica land based glacial ice. Meda at it again hyping Antarctic melt fears – Recycles same claims from 2014, 1990, 1979, 1922 & 1901! – Climate Depot’s Point-By-Point Rebuttal
Your show lacked any perspective on how long these glacial melt fears have been around and it was rank propaganda to have me discussing 'sea ice' and implying I am confused when you omitted my discussion of land based ice.
If I cared enough about the broadcast, I would be upset. But you should at least alert your staff and re watch my full interview. I think you will find you are guilty of misrepresenting my views, perhaps because of ignorance on your production staff. Either way, you omitted my discussion of land-based ice.
Thanks
Marc
UPDATE ADDED 3/13/15
Morano said he found "further evidence that Vice intentionally tried to make skeptics look bad and misrepresented both my interview and their Fox News video clip selection of me." He noted that Vice showed clips from Morano's Fox News appearance from May 14, 2014, discussing Antarctic sea ice.
"And later they claimed us 'deniers' are confused about 'sea ice' vs. land based ice. Vice intentionally left out multiple quotes of me discussing land based ice in Antarctica on Fox News in their segment," Morano explained. "In fact, the entire segment was focused on land based ice - the sea ice quotes that appeared in Vice were merely a mention during the Fox News segment."
They "intentionally edited out me discussing" the stability of land based ice sheets, Morano said.
As proof, Morano posted video of that Fox News interview on his Climate Depot website along with a partial transcript of the interview.
Morano's questions, given Vice's selective editing, was "Are we supposed to take this program seriously as a news program? Will they retract their claims?"
Editor's note: Morano worked for our colleagues at CNSNews.com from 2001 to 2006.
