Global Warming Deniers

I'm typically not excited about results of a poll, and I won't be about this one. However, it does seem to me that considering the finality of the debate, the screeching of the Anthropogenic Global Warming Alarmists, and the pronouncements of the Goreacle, there is still considerable doubt among the general populace about the validity and potential impact of global warming, natural or man caused.

From the Beeb: 'Scepticism' over climate claims

The public believes the effects of global warming on the climate are not as bad as politicians and scientists claim, a poll has suggested.

The Ipsos Mori poll of 2,032 adults - interviewed between 14 and 20 June - found 56% believed scientists were still questioning climate change.

[...]

The survey suggested that terrorism, graffiti, crime and dog mess were all of more concern than climate change.

One passage in the article that I disagree with: There was a feeling the problem was exaggerated to make money, it found.

It's not an effort to make money. It's an effort to punish western nations for their wealth, especially the United States, to give politicians an opportunity to erode our freedoms and exercise control. The global warming alarmists are becoming desperate as they see the window of opportunity closing as more of their claims are debunked and people become aware of their scheme.

Considering this appears to be a poll of Brits, I have even greater hope that the American people are going to eventually reject the global warming alarmists.

Evidently, the debate is not over.

Update 7/4 - Wizbang Classic has more on this survey: Great News in the Global Warming Debate

More Leftymedia Bias Exposed

Today on OpinionJournal, a former BBC employee opens the curtains just a little on "the Beeb."

I know this from experience: Toward the end of my 25 years as a BBC reporter I began writing a series of internal memos, first to senior news executives and finally to the BBC's Board of Governors, detailing an entrenched liberal-left bias that seriously undermined the BBC's claim to be an impartial news provider. Referring to well-documented incidents, I posed several questions: Why did we keep hiring established left-wing pundits, but never any journalists with right-wing credentials? Why did we use "right wing" as a yah-boo term to mean "anything we don't like"? Why did we never give U.S. actions the benefit of the doubt--in contrast to our strenuous efforts to be "fair" to Britain's avowed enemies?

The reaction was a studied indifference from everyone up the command chain. In a way, the BBC's attitude makes sense. The most important asset for any news organization is credibility. It is the mortal fear of "brand contamination" which in the past persuaded BBC executives to keep a lid on any discussion of the organization's failure to live up to its obligations to fairness and impartiality.

As usual, ya gotta read the whole thing.

PBS Takes After BBC

Looks like we got our own BBC over on this side of the pond, and it's called PBS... you know, that station that you pay for with your tax dollars but hardly ever watch because they seem to be eternally begging for more money, and usually during the only shows worth watching.

The producer of a tax-financed documentary on Islamic extremism claims his film has been dropped for political reasons from a television series that airs next week on more than 300 PBS stations nationwide.

Key portions of the documentary focus on Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser of Phoenix and his American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a non-profit organization of Muslim Americans who advocate patriotism, constitutional democracy and a separation of church and state.

Martyn Burke says that the Public Broadcasting Service and project managers at station WETA in Washington, D.C., excluded his documentary, Islam vs. Islamists, from the series America at a Crossroads after he refused to fire two co-producers affiliated with a conservative think tank.

"I was ordered to fire my two partners (who brought me into this project) on political grounds," Burke said in a complaint letter to PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supplied funds for the films.

Burke wrote that his documentary depicts the plight of moderate Muslims who are silenced by Islamic extremists, adding, "Now it appears to be PBS and CPB who are silencing them."

A Jan. 30 news release by the corporation listed Islam vs. Islamists as one of eight films to be presented in the opening series.

We must prevent the half-dozen people who watch PBS from being exposed to any concept that might cause them to question their left-liberalism, I guess.

Hat Tip: Little Green Footballs.

BBC: Iraq Hero's Tale "Too Positive"

The BBC has canceled plans to tell the story of a British soldier who won the Victoria Cross (Britain's equivalent to the American Congressional Medal of Honor), because it is "too positive."

Amid the deaths and the grim daily struggle bravely borne by Britain's forces in southern Iraq, one tale of heroism stands out.Private Johnson Beharry's courage in rescuing an ambushed foot patrol then, in a second act, saving his vehicle's crew despite his own terrible injuries earned him a Victoria Cross.

For the BBC, however, his story is "too positive" about the conflict.

The corporation has cancelled the commission for a 90-minute drama about Britain's youngest surviving Victoria Cross hero because it feared it would alienate members of the audience opposed to the war in Iraq.

The BBC's retreat from the project, which had the working title Victoria Cross, has sparked accusations of cowardice and will reignite the debate about the broadcaster's alleged lack of patriotism.

"The BBC has behaved in a cowardly fashion by pulling the plug on the project altogether," said a source close to the project. "It began to have second thoughts last year as the war in Iraq deteriorated. It felt it couldn't show anything with a degree of positivity about the conflict.

"It needed to tell stories about Iraq which reflected the fact that some members of the audience didn't approve of what was going on. Obviously a story about Johnson Beharry could never do that. You couldn't have a scene where he suddenly turned around and denounced the war because he just wouldn't do that.

"The film is now on hold and it will only make it to the screen if another broadcaster picks it up."

I don't think there's any "alleged" lack of patriotism there; rather, there is a real, palpable lack of patriotism at the BBC. Not to mention a vitriolic anti-war bias that they seem to be taking fewer and fewer pains to conceal.

It will be interesting to see how many members of the audience who support the war in Iraq the Beeb has managed to alienate. Apparently it doesn't really give a hoot about those people.