The Associated Press (AP) was caught misleading readers with biased and inaccurate coverage of the Climategate scandal in an article entitled “Science not faked, but not pretty” that was carried by hundreds of publications.

The AP gave copies of the leaked e-mails to three scientists for the story. It then attempted to portray their views on the scandal in a dishonest manner. The international wire service selectively quoted the experts it interviewed to make it seem as though they did not think the leaked e-mails and data from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit were a very big deal. But the leaked e-mails were a big deal, and the scientists interviewed knew it.

Now, the truth has come out. In an explosive Washington Times editorial entitled “Biased reporting on Climategate — Associated Press coverage raises eyebrows,” the newspaper, which spoke to all three of the scientists cited by the AP, exposed the AP's shoddy “journalism.”

“There's a big difference between saying that there isn't sufficient evidence to determine if falsification of data occurred — and that there should be an investigation — and saying, as AP did: ‘Science not faked,’” noted the Times. The Times concluded that the “Fourth Estate watchdog” was acting more like a “third-rate pocket pet” in relation to its coverage of climate change and, more specifically, Climategate. All three of the scientists gave a very different impression to the Times than that portrayed by the AP article.

For instance, the director of scientific freedom, responsibility, and law at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Mark Frankel, was quoted by AP as saying that there is "no evidence of falsification or fabrication of data, although concerns could be raised about some instances of very 'generous interpretations.'" However when he spoke to the Times, Frankel explained what he really meant: The e-mails alone are not enough to determine whether the science was fake, and a proper, independent investigation must decide that. He also said that outsiders with “impeccable” credentials should be brought in to help the ongoing investigations.

The next scientist, Professor Dan Sarewitz at Arizona State University, was quoted by the AP saying: “This is normal science politics, but on the extreme end, though still within bounds.” But he was not talking about the “validity of the climate science,”, according to the Times. “While AP used the quote to suggest that there was nothing terribly wrong that had been revealed in Climategate,” wrote the Times, “Mr. Sarewitz was trying to issue a warning that politics infects too much science and that reporters, politicians and the public are naive about that reality.” Sarewitz also supports a proper investigation and is skeptical of the ones currently being conducted by the universities involved. 

The third scientist interviewed by the AP also told the Times a similar story: The data should be shared and the investigations should continue. The Washington Times editorial summed it up nicely: “The wire service portrayed the trio of scientists as dismissing or minimizing allegations of scientific fraud when, in fact, the scientists believe no such thing.”

The AP refused to let any of the “reporters” or editors involved with the “not faked” story speak to the Times, claiming that they did not have time. Ironically, one of the lead reporters who worked on the story is himself caught up in the Climategate scandal. The AP did note at the very end of its article that one of the Climategate e-mails was from one of the reporters working on the story — Seth Borenstein. But, the AP dismissed the e-mail as nothing more than a request “for reaction to a study, a standard step.” In reality, the e-mail is very damning of the AP science writer’s mentality.    

“Mr. Borenstein's e-mail was hardly standard and far from neutral,” notes the Times’ editorial. “In it, the reporter disparages Marc Morano, a critic of man-made global-warming claims, as "hyping wildly" the study that Mr. Borenstein asked scientists to comment on. The e-mail almost makes it appear as if Mr. Borenstein were asking those involved in Climategate to help him discredit critics of man-made global warming.”

Finally, the Times notes that “East Anglia and Penn State are not the only two institutions that need to answer questions about what is going on behind the scenes.” Indeed, the AP has some serious explaining to do. This distortion of reality was run in publications around the globe, often on the front page of Sunday newspapers. How many people were left with a false impression about Climategate? And more importantly, what does the AP plan to do to regain the trust of readers? What about the newspapers that innocently ran the story, assuming it was accurate?

That a respected, international journalism organization has been exposed essentially lying to readers demands some sort of response. If the people cannot even trust the Climategate-connected scientists or the press to fairly debate the global-warming issue, how can they  trust the government to re-engineer society, ration and tax carbon dioxide, and ultimately remake the entire global economy?

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (12)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Dave McK said:

They will do what they must - get more T & A They just messed their nest so badly they can kiss any form of subscription readership goodbye. We found out how to find out without them - and despite them - and for free. Saying goodbye to subscribers means they have no product to deliver to advertisers. Buh-bye all the revenue. So there is only one possible thing they can do if they don't want to go extinct from self inflicted hammer wounds- they'll start peddling boobies and sports and numbers and contests. What else is there for them now?

December 30, 2009

Dave McK said:

AP Associated Press, for immediate release, December 30, 2010 HEADLINE: ELVIS' MARTIAN LOVECHILD BREATHES CO2! (receive 10$ if you subscribe today!)

December 30, 2009

Flu-Bird said:

NEWS FLASH News story intellegent polkadot monkeys found on mars the AP sounds more like the TABLOIDS everyday and ELVIS REINCARNATED AS A BLUEBIRD

December 30, 2009

John Costella said:

Climategate analysis The AP story was suspicious from the outset. First they had "five journalists" reading all the emails -- who claimed, "Nothing here, folks," then "three scientists" -- for whom words had to be put into their mouths. Take a look at http://assassinationscience.com/climategate to see what a scientist really finds in the emails!

December 31, 2009 | url

TheSkyIsFalling said:

... I strongly recommend Dr John Costella's website and analysis of the climategate emails. I have corresponded with John briefly and he is a gentleman and a scholar. His analysis and the way he links the raw emails in with it saves a lot of time. I am using it extensively. The AP blurb is a joke. Who reads MSM these days anyway. No wonder those troglodytes are going extinct. Make up your own mind from raw evidence. All the best for a prosperous 2010.

December 31, 2009 | url

Phil W said:

so who owns the AP? The global bankster Rothschild family are major owners of the AP yes?

December 31, 2009

Flu-Bird said:

Global warming the biggist fruad Global Warming has become the biggist fruad ever perpatraited on the world by unscuplous persons in the sinister UN and CFR as well as the various eco-freak groups of eco-freaks

December 31, 2009

Btok said:

Everyone American Should Sue to a Collective Total of $27 Trillion Plus Lost Interest! Everyone American Should Sue to a Collective Total of $27 Trillion - plus lost Interest, plus expenses! So that none is lost, the total of the tax money that was stolen from the American citizens and be put back into a protected American Treasury to be used after the illegal Fraudulent Federal Reserve is audited and abolished! Also make sure to have these fraudsters arrested and thrown in jail and tried! Both East Anglia CRU and the Federal Reserve members - hopefully they end up in a cell like Bernie Madoff , where they belong - I pray for the demise and total destruction of the Banksters and Globalists,Crooked Government and the Czars and work towards it and promote it every day, it has come to be the main thing I do every single day! How about you? Death to the New World Order!

January 01, 2010

felixw said:

Seth Borenstein is a Fraud To have Seth Borenstein cover science is like hiring Bernie Madoff as business news reporter. He distorts and spins. Science is about openness, testing, transparency. But his reporting is driven by ideology.

January 02, 2010

John A. Jauregui said:

Take Responsibility and Take Action Are you angry about this obvious RICO Act fraud and the national media's complicity in the cover-up, misinformation, reframing and misdirection of the issue and the related “carbon derivatives” market Obama’s Administration is spinning up? Take responsibility and take action. STOP all donations to the political party(s) responsible for this fraud. STOP donations to all environmental groups which funded this Global Warming propaganda campaign with our money, especially The Environmental Defense Fund. They have violated the public trust. KEEP donations local, close to home. MAKE donations to Oklahoma’s Senator Inhofe, the only politician to stand firmly against this obvious government/media coordinated information operation (propaganda) targeted at its own people. People that government leaders and employees are sworn to protect. WRITE your state and federal representatives demanding wall to wall investigations of government sponsored propaganda campaigns and demand indictments of those responsible. WRITE your state and federal Attorneys General demanding Al Gore and others conducting Global Warming/Climate Change racketeering and mail fraud operations be brought to justice, indicted, tried, convicted and jailed. Carbon is the stuff of life. He (Obama) who controls carbon, especially CO2, controls the world. Think of the consequences if you do nothing! For one, the UK is becoming the poster child for George Orwell’s “1984” and the US government’s sponsorship of this worldwide Global Warming propaganda campaign puts it in a class with the failed Soviet Union’s relentless violation of the basic human right to truthful government generated information. Given ClimateGate’s burgeoning revelations of outrageous government misconduct and massive covert misinformation, what are the chances that this Administration’s National Health Care sales campaign is anywhere near the truth? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bdneX1djD0

January 02, 2010

Nick Fraser said:

Don't like the truth, ey? What, so there was a smoking gun? Or all you people are just jumping up and down cause something doesn't fit with your world view? Like, the world is warming due to climate change, caused by burning fossil fuels. You will have to explain this to your kids, just like the Germans did in '45. Better get ready.

January 05, 2010

Kate said:

Climateprogress.com is having a bad day http://climateprogress.org/201...ent-249292 Climateprogress is real "up-to-date." They just today posted that AP quote about the AP review of climate emails. http://climateprogress.org/2010/01/07/science-experts-cold-snap-doesnt-disprove-global-warming/#comment-249292 I posted a rebuttal, linking to the exposure of this conflict of interest. Climateprogress deleted my post.

January 07, 2010