At the Washington Post on March 18, fact-checker Glenn Kessler gave Secretary of State John Kerry "four Pinocchios" for his resume-puffing "whopper" that he helped organize "the first hearings in the Senate" on global warming in 1988.
In the process, Kessler inadvertently perpetuated a related myth and got called out for it. He admirably corrected himself this morning. Additionally, while assigning four Pinocchios for himself, he dished out four Pinocchios to "all concerned." That's a long list.
The mythology surrounds the "atmosphere," both in the Greater Washington area and in a specific Senate hearing room on June 23, 1988.
Kessler began by quoting what he wrote on March 18 about that hearing (HT Hot Air):
Setting the record straight: The real story of a pivotal climate-change hearing
“That hearing was presided over and organized by then-Sen. Timothy Wirth (D-Colo.), who later told an interviewer that, for a bit of stage effect, he chose a particularly hot day in the summer — it turned out to be a record high — and left the windows of the hearing room open the night before. Thus witnesses were sweltering and wiping their brows as they testified about global warming.”
It turns out that the evidence that the hearing took place under those conditions is as elusive as evidence of any net global warming during the past 17-plus years (link is in original; bolds are mine):
... after the March 15 article was published, we received information suggesting that the stage-effect anecdote is simply not true. So let’s set the record straight.
... “You may have been more successful in unearthing the archives than have I, but I can say with certainty that it was we who chose the hearing date, as that was the protocol of the committee,” (then-staff director of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Daryl) Owen wrote. “Thus, the notion that it was chosen to coincide with a warm day in Washington is fiction, as is the notion that the hearing room windows were left open to warm the room."
... We dug into news reports at the time and found no reference to a particularly hot room. Alice Crites, ace researcher at The Washington Post, obtained a copy of the full hearing transcript (embedded at the end of the column). There is no reference to excessive heat in the hearing room or an apology from lawmakers for non-functioning air conditioning.
... we found a brief clip in an ABC News report on the 20th anniversary of the hearing (video is at link — Ed.) and also looked at archival photographs. We did not see any beads of sweat on the witnesses’ foreheads.
... as far as we can determine, the story of the windows and the heat did not exist until Wirth gave an interview to PBS Frontline in 2007.
... But (then-head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies James) Hansen says it did not happen that way. “Yes, the ‘window open’ bit is fiction,” he wrote an e-mail. “As for June 23 being chosen because it is the hottest day in climatology, I assume that is nonsense — I have not checked Washington’s climatology but the hottest day normally is some weeks after the beginning of summer, not two days. I love Tim and his wife Wren, but he just made these up later to make it seem interesting.”
... In the end, Wirth provided a lengthy statement to The Fact Checker in which he conceded he has spread incorrect information.
... Frankly, this now puts Kerry’s statements in an even a worse light. Not only did he place himself at a hearing he did not organize and attend, but he described witnessing events that did not happen.
We are happy to finally set the record straight. But Pinocchios to all concerned — including The Fact Checker.
John Kerry — Mr. "Christmas in Cambodia," who said he was outraged about President Richard Nixon telling the world in December 1968 that there were no U.S. troops in Cambodia, except, well, that was before Nixon was inaugurated — not telling the truth? Say it isn't so. (/sarcasm)
It seems that there's nothing about global warming (now "officially" aka "climate change," according to the PC police at the Associated Press Stylebook), including its allegedly dramatic origins, that isn't a sham through and through.
Though I'd like to be wrong, don't hold your breath waiting for PBS's "Frontline" to correct the record. The mythology is too useful.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
