<div>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:</div>
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<div><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://climateprogress.org/2009/10/11/al-gore-sej-phelim-mcaleer-denier/" target="_blank">http://climateprogress.org/2009/10/11/al-gore-sej-phelim-mcaleer-denier/</a></div>
<div><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://climateprogress.org/2009/10/11/al-gore-sej-phelim-mcaleer-denier/" target="_blank">
<h2>As the planet hits record high temperatures, a falsehood-pushing film-maker tries to shout down real journalists from asking Al Gore questions</h2></a><span title="Sunday, October 11th, 2009, 5:39 pm">October 11, 2009</span>
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<p>Planetary warming continues unabated (see “<a title="Skeptical Science explains how we know global warming is happening: It’s the oceans, stupid!" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://climateprogress.org/2009/10/11/2009/10/10/skeptical-science-global-warming-not-cooling-is-still-happening-ocean-heat-content/" target="_blank" rel="bookmark">It’s the oceans, stupid!</a>“), so the deniers are shouting even louder in their efforts to stifle genuine discussion.</p>
<p>The latest disinformer raising his voice and making headlines on Drudge is <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Phelim_McAleer" target="_blank">Phelim McAleer</a>. 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:</p>
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<p><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/article_dacf39c7-c2f8-5718-a5a0-d0cfb39f80bc.html" target="_blank">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.</a></p>
<p>“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.”</p>
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<p>You can watch McAleer’s version of events <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf-fzVH6v_U" target="_blank">here</a> in what the <em>NYT</em>’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.</p>
<p>Take a look at this press conference in New York City on September 24 with Mayor Bloomberg, with extended Q&A:</p>
<p>Ouch!</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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, <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2009/08/16/new-junk-science-movie-not-evil-just-wrong/" target="_blank">as blogger Ed Darrell notes</a>, has 9 errors just in the trailer!</p>
<p>McAleer was pushing the standard denier talking point that a British judge somehow ruled against Gore’s film, <em>An Inconvenient Truth</em>. As Kreider notes:</p>
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<p>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: <a title="http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/10/convenient-untruths/" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/10/convenient-untruths/" target="_blank">http://www.realclimate.org/<span style="FONT-SIZE: 1px"> </span>index.php/<span style="FONT-SIZE: 1px"> </span>archives/<span style="FONT-SIZE: 1px"> </span>2007/<span style="FONT-SIZE: 1px"> </span>10/<span style="FONT-SIZE: 1px"> </span>convenient-untruths/<span style="FONT-SIZE: 1px"> </span></a></p>
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<p>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:</p>
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<p><strong>Overall, our verdict is that the 9 points are not “errors” at all</strong> (with possibly one unwise choice of tense on the island evacuation point).</p></blockquote>
<p>You’ll note in McAleer’s <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf-fzVH6v_U" target="_blank">own whiny video</a>, 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:</p>
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<p>If the number of polar bears increased, surely they’re not endangered.</p></blockquote>
<p>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 “<a title="Permanent Link to Will polar bears go extinct by 2030? -- Part II" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://climateprogress.org/2009/10/11/2009/08/25/2007/09/11/will-polar-bears-go-extinct-by-2030-part-ii/" target="_blank" rel="bookmark">Will polar bears go extinct by 2030? — Part II</a>” (see also Revkin’s recent blog post, “<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/06/more-polar-bear-populations-in-decline/" target="_blank">More Polar Bear Populations in Decline</a>“).</p>
<p>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 <em>NYT</em>’s Andy Revkin, who emailed me and bloggers that “<img alt="">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:</p>
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<p><span>Amused that filmmaker <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://j.mp/sejGore" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://j.mp/sejGore</a> alleges I was shielding Al Gore at <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.sej.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.sej.org</a> sessions. Me? <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://bit.ly/nytYellingFire" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/nytYellingFire</a></span></p>
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<p>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.</p>
<p>Update – Revkin writes:</p>
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<p><strong>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.</strong></p>
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<p>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</p></blockquote></div></div>