Missing News: climategate 2

In their recent reply to our questions about sending Prof Stewart Franks down the memory hole the head of ABC Audience and Consumer affairs states:
"The broader story of the release of a second tranche of climate-related emails had not been covered by ABC News as it was judged less newsworthy than other events. "


Here's how the BBC covered the story:
'New release' of climate emails
A new batch of emails and other documents from the University of East Anglia's (UEA) Climatic Research Unit has been released on the internet.

Here's New Scientist:
Climategate 2: Hacked emails released

Here are some of those events that ABC considered more newsworthy, from ABC's news archive from late November 2011 (CHIEF, HOLD THE FRONT PAGE!)

Teen arrested over muck-up day pranks
By Jessica Nairn
Posted Wed Nov 23, 2011 9:09am AEDT
Police are cautioning Canberra students against potentially illegal end of year muck-up activities after the arrest of a teenager.

Clooney, Ronaldo called up in Berlusconi sex trial
Posted Wed Nov 23, 2011 11:01pm AEDT
An Italian court has ruled George Clooney and Cristiano Ronaldo can be called as witnesses in Silvio Berlusconi's trial for having sex with an underage prostitute.

Wheatley fined for third drink driving offence
By Margaret Paul
Posted Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:12am AEDT | Updated Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:15pm AEDT
Music manager Glenn Wheatley has been fined $600 and had his licence cancelled for a year, after pleading guilty to drink-driving in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court.

Work underway to eliminate traffic blackspot
Posted Wed Nov 23, 2011 9:54am AEDT | Updated Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:07am AEDT
Work on a new bridge and earthworks have begun as part of a major upgrade to eliminate a traffic blackspot on the New South Wales far south coast.

Students want council to buy old backpacker site
By Allyson Horn
Posted Wed Nov 23, 2011 5:46pm AEDT
A group of Alice Springs high school students is petitioning the Town Council to buy the Melanka's site and turn it into a community park.

Missing News: Memory Hole and Climategate two

ABC Audience and Consumer Affairs provide the following response regarding their defamatory description of Professor Stewart Franks (see Sending Franks down the memory hole) and in doing so admit to missing one of the biggest news stories of 2011.

Received from ABC Audience and Consumer Affairs 17/2/2012
I refer to your email of 15 February 2012 regarding an item published on ABC News's Corrections and Clarifications page.  You complained that the item was highly defamatory and inaccurate.  Claims of defamation are outside the remit of Audience and Consumer Affairs; if you wish to pursue this matter you will need to direct your correspondence to ABC Legal.  My response below is confined to your complaint of inaccuracy.
On receipt of your complaint, ABC News agreed that the original correction had been poorly worded and should be changed.  The correction was amended, both in relation to the views of the professor and the basis for removal of the original story.  In view of this prompt and appropriate action, I regard this matter as resolved.
You also asked why the article was not amended rather than removed.  The story was the work of the ABC's Newcastle newsroom, who covered it on the basis that it provided an interesting local angle on an international story, ie the leaked or hacked climate emails. However, as it turns out, having covered the so-called 'climate-gate' emails when the first tranche of emails was disclosed in 2009, ABC News did not return to the international story in late 2011 as other competing stories were judged more deserving of coverage.  This unfortunately left the Newcastle story to stand alone.  By the time ABC News had their attention directed to the story in late January 2012, the news agenda had moved on.  ABC News concluded that removal of the story was the appropriate course of action in these circumstances.
The ABC is satisfied that no further action on this matter is warranted.
Yours sincerely,
Head, Audience and Consumer Affairs


ABC NEWS WATCH respond

K,
Thanks for your prompt response and correcting the slander. I have forwarded it on to Professor Franks.

The reasons you provide for the story's removal however are unsatisfactory. Which matters were judged more deserving? Can ABC News provide some examples.

Regards
Marc

Reply from ABC

Dear Mr Hendrickx,
A broad sample of the stories covered by ABC News at that time is available on the ABC website.

Yours sincerely,
Head, Audience and Consumer Affairs

We attempted to look over ABC's News archive for late November 2011, but unfortunately it's currently not providing any links - we let them know.

The corrected correction reads as follows:

Climate emails

Posted Fri Jan 20, 2012 3:15pm AEDT | Updated Thu Feb 16, 2012 10:12am AEDT

ABC Newcastle: This story published on December 5 was removed because it was in breach of ABC editorial requirements. The story reported that a Newcastle University professor who questions aspects of climate change science felt vindicated that leaked scientific emails “showed fundamental flaws in the methodology” of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  These were not balanced by other views on this subject and the article did not associate the leaked emails with the Climategate emails of 2009.

ABC's explanation above indicates ABC entirely missed one of the major stories of 2011. Given the article apparently represents ABC's only news coverage of climategate2 we have suggested ABC's reluctance to salvage the article is due to bias. 

Sent to ABC:

Looking over your response once more I hardly think ABC's poor reporting should be the cause for removing the article from ABC's archive. Based on your statement below "ABC News did not return to the international story in

late 2011" It seems this story constituted the entirety of ABC's coverage of the second batch of climategate emails. 

As I pointed out in my complaint ABC have previously "salvaged" news articles that were initially not up to standard. See the polar bear report from 2009 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-12-05/climate-change-drives-polar-bears-to-cannibalism/1170372 (see also HERE). Given the high profile nature of the climategate story, its absence otherwise from ABC's news coverage and the previous precedents of ABC News salvaging articles; the only reason I can think of for ABC's reluctance to undertake this task is one of bias, and this a charge I now make. 

As this is a new complaint I ask ABC Audience and Consumer Affairs to investigate the matter.


Update: Off to ACMA we go:


From ABC Audience and Consumer Affairs, 20/2/2011:

My original response to you explained why the story you referred to was removed rather than updated.  The broader story of the release of a second tranche of climate-related emails had not been covered by ABC News as it was judged less newsworthy than other events.  This is a legitimate decision for a news organisation to make; it does not provide prima facie evidence of bias.  As I have already addressed the substance of your complaint, I decline to investigate this matter further.

I have also seen your additional complaint (C6535-12) referring to the News Archive for 2011.  I have not been able to replicate your experience of broken links and suggest you try the site again.

Yours sincerely,

Head, Audience and Consumer Affairs

Oh, score Plus 1

Missing News: Study confirms no changes in storm frequency or intensity.

The Pielke's both Snr and Jnr among the missing voices at the ABC.

Here's a new paper by Roger Pielke Jnr:

We have a new paper just accepted for publication in the Journal of Climate, titled "Historical Global Tropical Cyclone Landfalls." Here is the abstract:

Historical global tropical cyclone landfalls
Jessica Weinkle, Ryan Maue and Roger Pielke, Jr.
Journal of Climate (in press)

In recent decades, economic damage from tropical cyclones (TCs) around the world has increased dramatically. Scientific literature published to date finds that the increase in losses can be explained entirely by societal changes (such as increasing wealth, structures, population, etc) in locations prone to tropical cyclone landfalls, rather than by changes in annual storm frequency or intensity. However, no homogenized dataset of global tropical cyclone landfalls has been created that might serve as a consistency check for such economic normalization studies. Using currently available historical TC best-track records, we have constructed a global database focused on hurricane-force strength landfalls. Our analysis does not indicate significant long-period global or individual basin trends in the frequency or intensity of landfalling TCs of minor or major hurricane strength. This evidence provides strong support for the conclusion that increasing damage around the world during the past several decades can be explained entirely by increasing wealth in locations prone to TC landfalls, which adds confidence to the fidelity of economic normalization analyses.

Missing news: no change in Californian snows

Roger Pielke Snr reports on a new paper, missing at the ABC, that finds:

For those regions characterized by consistent monitoring and with the most robust statistical reproducibility, we find no statistically significant trends in their periods-of-record (up to 133 years) nor in the most recent 50 years. This result encompasses the main snowfall region of the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.”


Read the rest at Pielke Snr's site, as you won't read about it at the ABC.

Christy, J.R., 2012: Search for information in 133 years of California snowfall observations. J Hydrometeorology. DOE: 10.1175/JHM-D-11-040.1

Sending Franks down the memory hole

Update below: 2/3/2012
In December last year ABC news (surprisingly) reported on the opinions climate scientist, Professor Stewart Franks, had on comments contained in a new batch of climategate emails. While the story titled "Leaked email confirms climate questions" has been censored, ABC having sent it down the memory hole, much of the content of the original  is preserved  in a post titled "IPCC too sullied to be credible" at Australian Climate Madness:

Stewart Franks says there is no evidence that carbon dioxide drives global warming and he blames the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for scaring people about a future climate catastrophe.
For the past decade Professor Franks has focussed his research on natural variability in climate as being the driver of extreme droughts and rain events, rather that CO2 emissions.
He says the emails from Kevin Trenberth from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, show fundamental flaws in their methodology, but the public is being kept in the dark.
Professor Franks says he believes the emails support his own argument that natural variability is responsible for warming.
“Now I’ve been criticised for talking about these modes that we’ve barely beginning to understand as somehow being some kind of a denier of climate change or a pure contrarian,” he said.a
“But it is really heartening to see that these scientists actually acknowledge and in fact one scientist went as far as to say ‘What if all the warming we actually see is just natural multi-decadal variability?’
“He then said, ‘They’ll probably kill us’.
“I think we do need an independent and judicial review of the evidence both for and against the likelihood of climate change beyond naturally catastrophic climate variability.
“I must say the IPCC is far too sullied by the leaks and some of the shenanigans that the emails show have be going on.
“It is now too sullied to be credible.”

There is no doubt that this is newsworthy, and it is a credit to ABC Newcastle for reporting on it.

Here's the reason ABC (Sydney?) give for removing the story. Posted to ABC News Corrections page on January 20 (thanks to an anonymous reader for alerting us to it) it reads as follows:

Climate emails

Posted Fri Jan 20, 2012 3:15pm AEDT

ABC Newcastle: This story published on December 5 was removed because it was in breach of the ABC requirements for balance and context. The story reported that a Newcastle University professor who rejects the science of climate change felt vindicated that leaked scientific emails “showed fundamental flaws in the methodology” of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  These were not balanced by comments in support of the science of climate change and the article did not associate the leaked emails with the ‘Climategate' emails of 2009.

To say that Franks "rejects the science of climate change" is a gross misrepresentation of his views and work in the field. One that apparently defames his reputation. Seems a correction and clarification, along with an apology is in order.

ABC have previously published numerous news reports and articles featuring the views of "alarmist" climate scientists that were not balanced by dissenting opinions (see this one for example - still waiting for it to be corrected).    Previously ABC News have also later updated stories to provide "balance" and :"context". Why was this not done in this case?

Over the past 2 years we have established a convincing case that ABC's coverage of climate change is biased, lacks balance and is tainted by a lack of judgement and lack of inquiry. Sadly to the detriment of its audience its coverage is characterised by environmental activism over natural journalistic scepticism. We are constantly told the "ABC takes no editorial stance", however it is clear that at its Sydney office at least, ABC have institutionalised and are actively supporting one side of the climate change debate, across all its platforms. Throwing journalistic integrity out the window it actively promotes the notion that an impending climate catastrophe is nigh. ABC's own chairman Maurice Newman identified Groupthink reporting on climate change as a major issue but was unable to do anything about it.

The above provides yet another clear example of how deeply institutionalised ABC's Groupthink culture is. It seems that not only are its activist reporters infected by Groupthink but it seems the culture extents to ABC's Audience and Consumer Affairs unit, according to the ABC: "The unit is separate and independent from ABC program areas." (yeah right!)

Here's a copy of our complaint about the correction:


Your correction posted 20/2/2012 reads as follows:
(http://www.abc.net.au/news/corrections/)


Climate emails
Posted Fri Jan 20, 2012 3:15pm AEDT
ABC Newcastle: This story published on December 5 was removed because it was in breach of the ABC requirements for balance and context. The story reported that a Newcastle University professor who rejects the science of climate change felt vindicated that leaked scientific emails “showed fundamental flaws in the methodology” of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  These were not balanced by comments in support of the science of climate change and the article did not associate the leaked emails with the ‘Climategate' emails of 2009.


The text  appears highly defamatory to Stewart Franks and totally misrepresents his views on climate science.


In regard to the reasons the story was pulled from ABC's archive. ABC have previously published news reports and articles featuring "alarmist" climate scientists that were not balanced by dissenting opinions (eg http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-01-22/scientists-find-evidence-antarctica-is-warming/2575846).    Previously ABC News have also later updated stories to provide "balance" and :"context". Why was this not done in this case - (for an example see http://abcnewswatch.blogspot.com.au/2010/02/polar-bear-cannibalism-abc-provides.html). 
Publication of Stewart Franks opinion of the impact of the climategate emails was newsworthy and we congratulate ABC Newcastle for covering the story.


Please
1. Issue a public apology to Stewart Franks for misrepresenting his views on climate science and defaming his reputation as a scientist. He hardly "rejects the science of climate change"


2. Re-instate the story to ABC's online archive

Thanks again to an anonymous reader for noting the correction.


Update: 
ABC have thus far refused to restore the report to their archive. Our complaint to ACMA was turned down as it appears the story was not "broadcast".

Dear Mr Hendrickx

Thank you for your complaint to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (the ACMA) about material posted on, and removed from, the ABC News Online website. You allege a breach of the impartiality provisions of the ABC Code of Practice 2011.

While the ABC Code of Practice 2011 applies to ABC online content as well as to content broadcast on radio and television, the ACMA is able to investigate complaints about lack of impartiality in relation to ABC radio and television content only. Since your complaint is about online content, the ACMA is unable to assist you on this occasion.

The ACMA’s jurisdiction in relation to the internet is limited to the matters outlined athttp://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_90103. Your complaint does not raise issues of this kind.

Yours sincerely

Broadcasting Investigations Section

Received 2/3/2012:

ABC: infecting young minds.

Reported in Today's Australian:
Kid's play: ABC show to help sell climate goals

SHE grows awesome tomatoes and has an orange tractor. And now dirtgirl, the lead character in the popular children's television program dirtgirlworld, has been enlisted to the climate change fight by a Gillard government struggling to convince her viewers' parents of the merits of the carbon tax package.

Senate estimates was told yesterday the ABC show had been awarded a $150,000 grant "to reach currently disengaged families through childhood activities focused on reducing energy use".

Rest at The Oz

ABC:  the propaganda arm of the government

Penguins thrive but ABC frets

ABC's Karen Barlow takes up a berth on the Aurora Australis that might have been occupied by a rational scientist. She breathlessly reports on penguin problems in Antarctica.

KAREN BARLOW: There are dire predictions for some penguin species. Of the 17 types of penguins, some, like the African and Galapagos Penguins, are classed as threatened or vulnerable - and according to a climate model study by the private Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Emperor Penguins could be virtually extinct by the end of the century. Generally, penguin populations on the Antarctic Peninsula below South America are decreasing, while Adelie numbers in East Antarctica, below Australia, are on the rise. Over-fishing of the penguin's main diet, krill, is having an effect, but scientists say climate change is also a factor.

The Woods Holes Study was based on Computer modelling results for just one colony! The British Antarctic Survey recently found 10 new Emperor Penguin colonies using high resolution satellite data to spot guano patches. ( However, they noted that the satellite pictures could not pick up smaller colonies of fewer than 500 pairs of emperor penguins.) So there is likely to be more smaller colonies, they are likely to move around and change location. The basis of the WH study falls over at the first hurdle.

In regard to the Adelie Penguins we hear the following:

COLIN SOUTHWELL: There's fast ice growing out to 10 miles from the breeding colonies, so the penguins have to travel a lot further to get to their foraging ground than they would normally.

Yet, inexplicably

LOUISE EMMERSON: Well I didn't think that the population was going to be quite as big as it is, and we've been walking around with the intention of counting all the penguin breeding colonies, but it's not going to be possible in the limited time that we're going to be here, so we will do some helicopter surveys to finish off the counts.

Karen Balrow suggests disappearing sea ice a problem:

KAREN BARLOW: So how can sea ice loss for one lot of penguins be good, and for the others bad? Dr Collin Southwell said a melt on the Antarctic Peninsula may have gone too far.

The long term trend for sea ice in Antarctica not provided in ABC report? It's UP!

Here's the statistics from Cryosphere Today – Arctic Climate Research at the University of Illinois:

Only the ABC could take a good news story and and turn it into guano.