Former German public television meteorologist anchorman Dr. Wolfgang Thüne has a harsh commentary on the state of climate science communication by journalism.
Photo: Dr. Wolfgang Thüne
In a nutshell Thüne claims journalism has failed in its ethical duty to inform the public on the climate issue and accepted the role of playing useful idiots and stooges on behalf of activist scientists.
Thüne begins by reminding journalists of the importance of being cautious about what they report, and “to not stand on the same the same level as the inventors and propagandists of the greenhouse effect and climate catastrophe“.
He calls on journalists to get back to more investigative journalism instead of swallowing without question everything institutionalized science feeds them.
The veteran meteorologist writes that fighting the weather and climate is a totally a futile endeavor, reminding that it is a natural chaotic phenomenon that cannot be fought by man:
A ‘global transformation’ and the creation of a ‘world government’ will do nothing to change the general circulation and weather variety of the earth.”
When it comes to climate catastrophes, Thüne calls them the Saturnalia of journalists. The climate catstrophe for German journalists was born on January 22, 1986 at the Hotel Tulpenhof in Bonn:
On this day the German Physical Society e. V. had invited journalists in order to present to them the ‘warning of the threatening climate catastrophe’. […]
Explained was CO2’s role as a potential source of danger for global climate changes. The effect of CO2 was compared to the glass cover of a greenhouse that is ‘heated’ only by solar radiation. With a doubling of CO2 concentration, the temperature would increase 2°C in the tropics, 4°C at ‘our latitudes’ and about 8°C at the polar regions and cause a shift in the climate zones. If the ice floating at the Arctic and the ice on the Antarctic continent disappeared, then the sea level would rise successively up to 60 meters.”
Thüne writes this is where journalists dropped the ball. He writes:
That would have been the ideal hour for critical journalism, however the journalists froze, intimidated by the wisdom of the physical science prominence represented by physics professors K. Heinloth (Bonn) and J. Fricke (Wurzburg). Not a single journalist dared to question the physicists about climate, which is statistically derived from weather and thus only depicts and reflects the historical weather change.”
Here Dr. Thüne writes that journalists in general have three choices when receiving news of an imminent catastrophe from experts:
1. Should they accept the information as is and distribute it, simply playing the role of fetch and carry.
2. Should they look at the supplied news critically, and check it out?
3. Or should they take it, and dramatize it to increase the effect on the public?
Unfortunately, Thüne writes, news magazine Der Spiegel chose the latter option in its August 11, 1986 issue, whose front cover donned a powerfully emotional image of a semi-submerged Cologne Cathedral. Here Der Spiegel grossly crossed the boundaries of responsible journalism in implying an upcoming Biblical wrath of God – brought on by the sins of man. Not only did Spiegel play the role of stooge for a dubious science, but had engaged in an orgy of sensationalistic journalism that would make even the shoddiest of tabloids blush.
The rest of Germany’s media unhesitatntly followed Spiegel’s example. Thüne writes that while the German Physical Society brought us the misnomer of ‘climate catastrophe’, it was Spiegel who popularized it.
To summarise, Thüne cites journalism experts H.-P. Peters M. Sippel:
Not the environmental movement, not the catastrophe – rather it was the warnings of scientists who publicly and politically exposed themselves who were the international godfathers of the climate debate.”
Thüne also adds that the American media also gladly accepted the fetch-and-carry role on behalf of an activist sicence, slamming James Hansen:
In the hot summer months the media over-proportionately reported on the greenhouse effect. Especially the hot summer of 1988 was used by James Hansen (NASA) to dramatize the consequences of the greenhouse effects and to manipulate the psychological climate of Congress.”
Thüne sums up:
More humility by journalists would boost their reputation when it comes to credibility.
Germany has produced some of the world’s greatest scientists. Which is why I was very disappointed that Germany seemed to have got brainwashed by the IPCC science of dangerous man-made global warming, thus leaving me to question, “What had happened to the German tradition of producing world’s best scientists?”
But I might have been mistaken. It is becoming evident that Germany does indeed have some really great scientists. They now dare to speak out the truth based on real scientific evidence. But there is still a long way to go.
I have no doubt that the day we see a large body of German climatologists speak out – “The Emperor has no clothes” – that will be the day the IPCC mantra truly begins to crumble.
I am so glad to see Dr. Thüne has had the courage to speak out.
“More humility by journalists would boost their reputation when it comes to credibility.”
It is much too late for that. Journalists can only hope that the public is getting fed up with the climate crises, and that no one will have the energy to make their flaunting of journalistic integrity a political issue, or take it to the courts. Hopefully, they will not get away with it. Editors must also realise how their credibility is being damaged by their activist attitude. How can we trust anything in the media, when such extreme bias is accepted without qualms by a united media profession?
In Britain, the media is still reluctant to dare to speak out against the great scam, because it is difficult for some; Geoffrey Lean, George Moonbat, Leo Hickman, Richard Black, Roger Harrabin to eat crow and indeed most are so deluded, that, these left wing cretins will tell you climate change is real, is here!! And that, moonbeams are a source of protein.
I don’t really know what ever happened to real investigative journalism, perhaps it never existed – people remember the film “All the Presidents men” but that was Hofman and Redford’s take and a Hollywood tale of bringing down a Republican…..
For sure, all the mainstream media in Britain plays the same left wing tune. The list is long; on Brussels, the green agenda, on the ‘benefits’ of mass immigration and we now have 4-5 Muslims [on one really knows how many there are because actually – the government has given up counting them in], birdmincers, photo voltaics, big government, quangos, the UN, UNECE, foreign aid – ah God I feel like throwing up.
UK Journalism, the BBC all of it, is totally compromised and all they do is repeat the government line and propaganda. I can’t speak for Germany but I am guessing it’s not much different and thus ultimately, we must think and together acknowledge the real culprits – the Axis of Brussels, Rome, Paris, Berlin and London – forget about the others, they just do as they are told.
Come on; Syriza, Marine le Pen, AfD, UKIP!!!
There are three points important here, I think.
Prior to the Great Climate Scare the environmental desk on most media was at the bottom of the ‘importance’ rankings, only those really committed to ‘environmentalism’ (true believers) or those trying to get a foothold in journalism were attracted to it.
The modern media wildly and egrariously exaggerates almost the entirety of it’s content in order to ‘big up’ stories.
Modern media science is almost entirely based on cut ‘n paste reporting with absolutely no critical analysis. The only editing employed seems to be the excision of all the ‘might’, ‘could be’, ‘possibly’, etc. uncertainties that are liberally sprinkled throughout scientific papers and replacing with ‘will’, ‘expected to’, ‘almost certainly’ and so on.
All this kind of scam – Global Warming, anti-Nuclear power, anti-GMO- results from our western civilization falling uncontrolled on the slippery descent towards a world of “appearance”: For decades, everything is only to appear, not to be real. It started by JFK campaign in 1960: Lots of TV shows, a very young and beautiful wife were the key ingredients to success, not his political program ! All subsequent election campaigns are miserable political shows, glamour and sparkling lights, not real politics. Electors are fed as young boys, unable to think.
These scams will all pass, demolished by Reality to be just forgotten as soon another scam is invented, costs a lot and makes rich many hidden leaders….
This civilization is retro-pedalling; It cannot win the race even if still temporarily leading, or believe to still lead the world.
Bear in mind that journalists used to be ‘educated’ on the job. Starting as office boys then working their way up the ladder to being a columnist with a byline!
Nowadays the intake comes from the same classes at University as the scare mongers, and starts as columnists. That which is easily won is not valued.
I copied this from a blog post – long forgotten where – seems appropriate here:
You cannot hope
to bribe or twist,
thank God! the
British journalist.
But, seeing what
the man will do
unbribed, there’s
no occasion to.
(Humbert Wolfe, d. 1940, a civil servant as well as a literary person).
The journalist problem seems to have been with us for quite a while.