[Vision2020] Video: New York Mayor Bloomberg & Gore: 9/24/09 Press Conference: More on Junk Climate Science Film "Not Evil, Just Wrong"

[Ted Moffett]

The video mentioned in the subject heading can be accessed in a prominently
displayed YouTube window at the following web site.  The text from this web
site is offered below:

http://climateprogress.org/2009/10/11/al-gore-sej-phelim-mcaleer-denier/
 As the planet hits record high temperatures, a falsehood-pushing film-maker
tries to shout down real journalists from asking Al Gore
questions<http://climateprogress.org/2009/10/11/al-gore-sej-phelim-mcaleer-denier/>October
11, 2009

Planetary warming continues unabated (see “It’s the oceans,
stupid!<http://climateprogress.org/2009/10/11/2009/10/10/skeptical-science-global-warming-not-cooling-is-still-happening-ocean-heat-content/>“),
so the deniers are shouting even louder in their efforts to stifle genuine
discussion.

The latest disinformer raising his voice and making headlines on
Drudge is Phelim
McAleer <http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Phelim_McAleer>.  We’ve
all been at major speaking events where some jerk tries to hog the
microphone, asking a series of questions that seem pointed — but are in fact
just rude and nonsensical.  In this case, however, the forum Gore was
speaking at was a major gathering of journalists, so the refusal to give up
the microphone was the equivalent of blocking other (i.e. real) journalists
from asking Gore questions:

Former Vice President Al Gore shared his optimism about the “shifting
momentum” of the climate change debate with about 500 environmental
journalists Friday in
Madison.<http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/article_dacf39c7-c2f8-5718-a5a0-d0cfb39f80bc.html>

“We’re very close to that political tipping point,” Gore said at the Society
of Environmental Journalists annual conference at the Madison Concourse
Hotel. “Never before in human history has a single generation been asked to
make such difficult and consequential decisions.”

You can watch McAleer’s version of events
here<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf-fzVH6v_U>in what the
*NYT*’s Andy Revkin (who was there) describes as a “whiny video.”  But while
McAleer’s a clever filmaker, he’s a bad liar.  He asserts of Gore, “He never
takes questions.”  Not.

Take a look at this press conference in New York City on September 24 with
Mayor Bloomberg, with extended Q&A:

Ouch!

As Gore spokesperson Kalee Kreider shared with me, “in addition to his
appearance at SEJ” and the Bloomberg event, Gore had a “press conference
(with Q and A) on Tuesday, September 22, 2009 at the United Nations.”  So
that would be 3 major appearances with Gore taking questions from the media
over three weeks.

So yes, McAleer is a disinformer, a denier, a liar.  Of course, McAleer was
promoting his anti-Gore and anti-environmental junk science movie, “Not
evil, just wrong” — perhaps the most unintentionally ironic film title in
history — which, as blogger Ed Darrell
notes<http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2009/08/16/new-junk-science-movie-not-evil-just-wrong/>,
has 9 errors just in the trailer!

McAleer was pushing the standard denier talking point that a British judge
somehow ruled against Gore’s film, *An Inconvenient Truth*.  As Kreider
notes:

With regards to the UK court case, the former Vice President was gratified
that the courts verified the central argument of the film and allowed it to
continue to be shown in schools rather than banned as was sought by the
plaintiffs.  Of the thousands and thousands of facts presented in the film,
the judge took issue only with a handful.  We disputed even those at the
time, as Vice President Gore did at SEJ. Perhaps more importantly, others
from the scientific community have as well.  Here is but one example:
http://www.realclimate.org/ index.php/ archives/ 2007/ 10/
convenient-untruths/
<http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/10/convenient-untruths/>

Indeed, I recommend everyone engaged in the climate debate read that
RealClimate piece, which not only sets the record straight on what the judge
found, but explains in detail how the 9 alleged “errors” the judge did find
are bogus:

*Overall, our verdict is that the 9 points are not “errors” at all* (with
possibly one unwise choice of tense on the island evacuation point).

You’ll note in McAleer’s own whiny
video<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf-fzVH6v_U>,
McAleer is the one who twice refuses to answer Gore’s question as to whether
he believes polar bears are endangered, ultimately asserting a pure non
sequitur:

If the number of polar bears increased, surely they’re not endangered.

Unless, of course, they increased for reasons that have nothing to do with
climate change, say because we reduced hunting, but their key habitat is
being destroyed by global warming — see “Will polar bears go extinct by
2030? — Part II<http://climateprogress.org/2009/10/11/2009/08/25/2007/09/11/will-polar-bears-go-extinct-by-2030-part-ii/>”
(see also Revkin’s recent blog post, “More Polar Bear Populations in
Decline<http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/06/more-polar-bear-populations-in-decline/>
“).

In the video, McAleer makes the Through-the-Looking-Glass argument that his
effort to hog the microphone and prevent real journalists from asking
questions was an effort to stifle real discussion.  He even attacks the *NYT
*’s Andy Revkin, who emailed me and bloggers that “drudge is promoting whiny
video by gore critic” and points out how laughable it is to accuse him of
trying to shield Gore from tough questions, tweeting:

Amused that filmmaker http://j.mp/sejGore alleges I was shielding Al Gore at
http://www.sej.org sessions. Me? http://bit.ly/nytYellingFire

No one deserves to be harangued in a Q&A, let alone harangued by a liar,
especially someone like former VP Al Gore, who is willing to make himself so
open to questions from real journalists.

Update –  Revkin writes:

*Amazed at the chutzpah (and promotional skill) of a filmmaker who claims
the Society of Environmental Journalists cut off his microphone during Al
Gore Q&A “to protect a politician.” As the moderator of this talk, it was
clear to me organizers did so to protect the rights of journalists (those
standing in line still waiting to ask a single question, as he did.*

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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