From Media Matters

	July 09, 2010
Media Matters: The greatest science "scandal" "in the history of man" predictably falls apart In their never-ending quest to prove that they understand the intricacies of climate science better than actual climate scientists, conservative media figures routinely promote any ridiculous "evidence" they think undermines the scientific consensus about climate change.  This is a group that repeatedly points to snowstorms in February as proof that global warming is not real; claims that CO2 can't be a pollutant because "we breathe" it; and ignores actual temperature data to baselessly claim that the Earth is really "cooling."  Last year, conservative climate change skeptics, in the words of Wall Street Journal's Kimberly Strassel, thought they had found a "gold mine." Conservative media figures seized on emails stolen from climate scientists and proceeded to completely distort their contents. As we pointed out repeatedly at the time, this "scandal" relied on outrageous misrepresentations of the stolen emails and did not in any way undermine the scientific consensus about climate change. Nevertheless, conservative media figures incessantly hyped the non-scandal with their usual overblown rhetoric: Glenn Beck -- who says he is not a conspiracy theorist, remember -- suggested in the wake of "Climategate" that climate change is a "scam." He also said that if the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report "had been done by Japanese scientists, there is not enough knives on planet Earth for hara-kiri." Noted climatologist Rush Limbaugh, who frequently decries the supposed global warming "hoax," proposed that all of the scientists involved in "Climategate" should be "named and fired, drawn and quartered, or whatever it is." Andrew Breitbart called for "capital punishment" for NASA scientist James Hansen, because "Climategate" was supposedly "high treason." The Washington Times, Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter, Investor's Business Daily, The American Spectator's Robert Stacy McCain, Rich Lowry, Newsmax's James Hirsen, and Michael Ledeen all joined forces to smear the scientific consensus on climate change as a "cult." Fox News' Mike Huckabee explained that "Jesus would be a truthseeker" while discussing the "revelation" that scientists had "cooked" climate change data. The crew at Fox & Friends spent this year's Earth Day promoting an important cause. No, not encouraging environmental consciousness -- they devoted the show to pushing "Climategate" falsehoods in order to falsely claim that "scientists held back data that discredits theories on global warming." They were joined by Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center, who was there to complain about non-Fox networks "dismiss[ing]" and "ignor[ing]" the story. Last December, Bozell told Lou Dobbs that "Climategate" is the "biggest scandal in terms of science, finance, and politics ... in the history of man." After Bozell compared the climate science "cover-up" to "the craziness" of Dan Brown's fiction, he actually managed to draw laughter from Dobbs. Unfortunately, contrary to Bozell's suggestion that media outlets ignored the story, numerous non-Fox "Climategate" stories adopted conservatives' dishonest framing of the non-story. And now for the inevitable conclusion of this manufactured controversy. As reported by The New York Times' Andrew Revkin -- who, by the way, Rush Limbaugh thinksMedia Matters, joined by numerous progressive and clean energy groups, called on all outlets that reported on the original "Climategate" controversy to set the record straight. should "just go kill" himself -- the Independent Climate Change Email Review "cleared climate scientists and administrators" involved in "Climategate" of "malfeasance." This follows several other exonerations of the scientists involved in the phony scandal. In response, So this leaves us where we were before the "Climategate" freakout: There is still overwhelming scientific evidence supporting the theory of global warming.  And once again conservative media proved that they don't hesitate to rely on blatant distortions, outright falsehoods, and a complete disregard for reality to advance their political causes.  Mainstream media outlets would be doing everyone a service if they remembered that the next time they decide to report on whatever Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Fox News, and the perpetual conservative outrage machine are yelling about.