1.Climate scientist 'duped to deny global warming'
2.SpinWatch on The Great Global Warming Swindle

EXTRACTS: A Leading US climate scientist is considering legal action after he says he was duped into appearing in a Channel 4 documentary... Carl Wunsch, professor of physical oceanography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the film, The Great Global Warming Swindle, was... 'as close to pure propaganda as anything since World War Two'. (item 1)

GM WATCH comment: Item 1 relates to the recently broadcast documentary by Martin Durkin, the director who previously brought us a hymn of praise to GM food as the much maligned but much needed answer to starvation in the Third World.

And before 'Modified Truth: The Rise and Fall of GM', there was Durkin's 'Against Nature', a hymn of hate against environmentalists that lead to condemnation from the Independent Television Commission for misrepresenting the views of interviewees and misleading them 'as to the format, subject matter and purpose of these programs.' Funnily enough, exactly similar complaints have been levelled at Durkin's other programmes (see item 2).

Durkin connects to the environmentalist-hating LM group that are key players in Spiked-online, the Institute of Ideas, Sense About Science, the Science Media Centre, the Genetic Interest Group etc. etc.

Given that the LM group operates by hiding and playing down its affiliations, it was no surprise that Spiked's editor, Brendan O'Neil, claimed this week:

'a few people who contributed articles to LM appeared as talking heads on Against Nature. That's all. Not as exciting as the crazed and wide-eyed web conspiracy theories make it sound, I know. Sorry.' (Apocolypse my arse)
http://spikedltd.c.topica.com/maafZYmabw4FCchu6szc/

This is typically misleading. A series of interviewees who came from LM(formerly Living Marxism) but got billed by the programme as independent experts, was far from 'all' in terms of undisclosed LM affiliations. Durkin's assistant producer for Against Nature was Eve Kaye, a key player in the group behind LM and the wife of one of the group's chief ideologues.

In addition, as George Monbiot noted at the time, 'The director, Martin Durkin... denies any link with LM, but precisely follows its line in argument... Line by line, point by point, Against Nature followed the agenda laid down by LM: that greens are not radicals, but doom-mongering imperialists; that global warming is nothing to worry about; that 'sustainable development' is a conspiracy against people; while germline gene therapy and human cloning will liberate humanity from nature.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7604

Given all that, it's hardly surprising that Durkin's latest Channel 4 propaganda piece has been labelled 'The Great LM Swindle'.

FOR MORE ON LM: http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=78
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1.Climate scientist 'duped to deny global warming'
Ben Goldacre and David Adam
The Observer, March 11 2007
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2031455,00.html

A Leading US climate scientist is considering legal action after he says he was duped into appearing in a Channel 4 documentary that claimed man-made global warming is a myth. Carl Wunsch, professor of physical oceanography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the film, The Great Global Warming Swindle, was 'grossly distorted' and 'as close to pure propaganda as anything since World War Two'.

He says his comments in the film were taken out of context and that he would not have agreed to take part if he had known it would argue that man-made global warming was not a serious threat. 'I thought they were trying to educate the public about the complexities of climate change,' he said. 'This seems like a deliberate attempt to exploit someone who is on the other side of the issue.' He is considering a complaint to Ofcom, the broadcast regulator.

The film, shown on Thursday, was made by Martin Durkin. In 1997, he produced a similar series for Channel 4 called Against Nature, which attacked many of the claims of the environmental movement.
Durkin said: 'Carl Wunsch was most certainly not 'duped' into appearing in the film, as is perfectly clear from our correspondence with him. Nor are his comments taken out of context. His interview, as used in the programme, perfectly accurately represents what he said.'

Channel 4 said: 'We feel it is important that all sides of the debate are aired. If one of the scientists featured now has concerns about his contribution, we will look into it in the normal way.'
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2.Climate Sceptic Alert
The Great Global Warming Swindle
Jonathan Matthews and Andy Rowell
SpinWatch, March 8 2007

Oh yeah? Don't believe a word of it. You may have thought the long debate over whether humans are warming the Earth was finally over, especially given the recent warnings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

But today Channel 4 will screen “The Great Global Warming Swindle”, a documentary which claims accepted theories about global warming are 'lies'.

The programme's director is Martin Durkin, who first came to fame in 1997 with a series for Channel 4 called Against Nature , which targeted environmentalists. Against Nature presented them as not just 'the new enemy of science' but as comparable to the Nazis and responsible for the deprivation and death of millions in the Third World.

Channel Four had to broadcast a prime-time apology after Against Nature drew the wrath of the Independent Television Commission which ruled that the editing of the interviews with environmentalists 'had indeed distorted or misrepresented their known views. It was also found that the production company had misled them... as to the format, subject matter and purpose of these programs.'

Durkin's hidden agenda and controversial methods didn't stop Channel 4 making further use of his services, as Private Eye noted, 'What does Channel 4 do with programme makers condemned by the TV watchdog, the Independent Television Commission (ITC), for using underhand editing techniques? The answer is, er, hire them to make another programme.''

'Modified Truth: The Rise and Fall of GM' was broadcast in March 2000. It presented GM food as perfectly safe and as much needed to feed the starving in the Third World. Dr Tewolde Gebre Egziaber of Ethiopia was among multiple signatories from the Third World who complained in a joint letter that the programme was actually a propaganda vehicle.

Contributors to another Durkin-directed Equinox programme about breast implants were equally unhappy with Durkin: 'We were totally and unequivocally misled as to the intent and content of that piece.' Durkin's proposal for the programme had earlier been rejected by the BBC because it 'ignored a powerful body of evidence contradicting his [Durkin's] claims'. A researcher hired to help Durkin make the Equinox programme resigned because, 'my research was being ignored. The published research had been construed to give an impression that's not the case. I don't know how that programme got passed.'

As for the scientists presented as “experts” in the programme, they include many leading climate skeptics. Some like Lord Lawson of Blaby, have no scientific expertise in this field. Others like Piers Corbyn and Philip Stott are known maverics, whereas the oil-industry funded skeptics such as Professor Lindzen and Patrick Michaels are also there. Others like Paul Driessen are key players in the right-wing “Wise Use” movement in the US.

You could find twenty scientists paid by the tobacco industry and put them on TV to say that smoking is harmless, or if you tried hard enough find twenty people that would say the earth is flat, or the moon is made of cheese.

Durkin's work would be laughable... if only Channel 4 didn't keep putting it out as prime time TV. The only 'Swindle' on offer tonight is to the viewers. Channel 4 should know better.