December 16, 2010 09:39 PM UTC

Corporate Enforced Denial

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• by: ardy39

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

UPDATED: Global temperature graph now includes preliminary 11-month data from 2010 and a graph of solar output for the last decade.

(as reported by Media Matters who has been reporting on their acquisition of leaked emails from the goons at Fox)

Last year Fox News [sic] reported on the climate talks in Copenhagen. For a brief segment they reported on the factual conclusions from scientists, including the fact that the decade 2000-2009 was the warmest on record.

So far, so good, right?

No. No. NO.

Apparently, reporting facts and letting you decide conflicts with actual corporate policy.

Video and email below.

So here is the brief segment, from Dec. 8, 2009, in which a Faux News correspondent reports a few facts:

Fifteen minutes after airing this segment (indeed, less than 15 minutes later!), Management Goon Bill Sammon sent out this email:

From: Sammon, Bill

To: 169 SPECIAL REPORT; 036 FOX.WHU; 054 FNSunday; 030 Root (FoxNews.Com); 050 Senior Producers; 051 Producers; 069 Politics; 005 Washington

Cc: Clemente, Michael; Stack, John; Wallace, Jay; Smith, Sean

Sent: Tue Dec 08 12:49:51 2009

Subject: Given the controversy over the veracity of climate change data…

…we should refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question. It is not our place as journalists to assert such notions as facts, especially as this debate intensifies.

Brilliant! Here’s the babelfish reverse Hebrew via Mandarin Chinese translation of this into plain English:

Don’t report the findings of 99% of the active climate researchers without “qualifying” it by mentioning the CSB* of a few public relations whores in the employ of the Koch brothers and Exxon-Mobil. The task at Faux News is to manufacture controversy where no scientific controversy exists. There’s profits to be had. It’s also one of the few things we are actually quite skilled at, after all.

It’s warming. Get used to it.

(Global surface air temperature anomalies relative to 1951-1980 mean for (a) annual and 5-year running means, and (b) 60-month and 132-month running means. In (a) the 2010 point is a preliminary 11-month anomaly. Green vertical bars are two-standard-deviation error estimates.  Hansen et al. Dec. 13, 2010)

Furthermore, the warmest decade in recorded history (2000-2009) occurred during a declining trend in solar activity. Are you paying attention, deniers? Just think what we’re in for by 2013 if solar activity is the driver behind recent observed warming!

As also noted in this and other Media Matters reports, it is apparently OK to state a verifiable lie about climate scientists on Fox News [sic] without providing any factual evidence or counterpoint.

But reporting facts is verboten?

We are so fucked by media corporations and their Kochsucking minions.

(1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Breathe 1 2 3 4 5 6 7  Breathe 1 2 3 4 Breathe …)

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I’m going to go outside and talk to a wall.

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*CSB or caterwauling shit blizzard: usually reserved to describe a public outburst from soon-to-be-former Sen. Josh Penry, but my hacked version of babelfish deemed it appropriate here.