My last 2 posts have been about this topic, where a one-sided international conference for journalists will provide their marching orders for the months ahead. Normally such a conference if organised privately would be legitimate.
But the shocking thing about this conference is that it is organised by a German publically funded radio and TV broadcaster – Deutsche Welle, and therefore the total absence of neutrality and objectivity is a violation of Germany’s Consitutional Law.
The conference calls on journalists to:
1. Abandon neutrality and to report only on the single extreme view of AGW calamity.
2. Abandon professional procedures in journalism. See here and here.
The European Institute for Climate and Energy (EIKE) based in Germany has sent a Letter of Protest (in German) to Deutsche Welle demanding that they refrain from this misuse of public funds and cancel the one-sided conference which clearly excludes any views that disagree with the extreme gloom and doom world downfall view. It requests that it too obey the law, like every other citizen or guest in the country is rightfully expected to do. Currently the letter is only in German.
Hopefully EIKE will post a copy in English.
In the meantime, we urge readers to write or call Deutsche Welle at:
Phone: +49 228 429-2008 (Ask for a Mr Bettermann)
Fax: +49 228 429-2140
gmf@dw-world.de
They speak excellent English. Please politely ask him why they are violating the law by presenting only one radical side of the issue, and insist they present all the other wide range of views from other scientists and experts on climate change. Why is it they are presenting only the worst of scenarios? Is it really their job to emotionalise the audience with the aim to get them to think in one particular way?
Let us know what they tell you. I left my name and number with the secreatry, who said Mr Bettermann will call me back.
Great job, well done.
Honestly, I am fed up with the alarmist AGW crap on German television.
Haven’t we had enough lessons where these Goebels type of propaganda leads to?
Seems similar to the recently reported “Cry Wolf” project pupating in leftard American academia. Under cover of disinterested, scientific expertise, these asinine propagandists plan a concerted effort to trash opposing views without benefit of argument. Alas, in this Internet Age any precipitous drop-off in credibility will be climate hysterics’ own.
I agree.
Many years ago I had a discussion with a fellow law student who worked for the Voice of America. He had visited his alma mater (JSchool) and told me he was shocked at what he found. The students were taught to “mold opinion” and not to practice journalism. Things haven’t changed since.
Seems to me that folks go into journalism in order to affect the world around them; simply reporting the news is not enough, but it is necessary to push a worldview in the guise of news.
Same old rules of rhetoric as practiced by the ancient Greeks.
And shows that journalism is simply a branch of politics.