Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

ABC Still in Denial about History of Lower Murray and Estuary

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‘Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated failures. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

Those inspiring words are attributed to Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the United States (1923-1929).

It’s easy to give up.  Particularly when you choose to take-on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.  But Bob F-J is no quitter.  Following is yet another letter from Bob F-J to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation complaining about their Media Watch program of March 19.  As Bob F-J explains in the following letter of complaint: Media Watch misled viewers by withholding critical facts.  In particular, Media Watch failed to inform the Australian public about the majority view of scientists on the nature of the Murray River estuary and failed to inform the Australian public of the history of the Lower Murray and its estuary…

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After Gina Rhinehart Buys Fairfax

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‘The hilarious implication – and secret terror of every Melbourne hipster – is that Rinehart will turn Fairfax into some kind of 24-hour Mining Channel, with endless re-runs of Red Dog and Wake in Fright, interspersed with ads for blue singlets. You won’t be able to so much as pick up a copy of the Age without finding your hands stained red with dust, as you search in vain for a single article that isn’t about the Hancock family, while averting your eyes from the topless pictures of Andrew Bolt on page 3. 

I don’t know about you, but given the uniformly mindless dross scraped up, warmed over, rehashed and then served as ideological bubble-and-squeak on the ABC (even drizzled with its jus of self-righteousness and dark-green sea foam), I long for alternatives. In fact, I long for the much-anticipated sale of the ABC under the most enthusiastic sort of Liberal government, and dismantled by an equally enthusiastic Mark Latham. During the Renaissance, it was the independently filthy rich – the oligarchs, bankers and popes – who sponsored the finest artists of the age. Let a new Renaissance bloom at the touch of button 2 on the remote: I hope Rinehart buys the entire Fairfax group, and then casts hungry eyes on the ABC itself…

Read more here: http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/qed/2012/06/one-woman-army

From ‘One-woman Army’ by Philippa Martyr
Published at Quadrant Online on June 20, 2012

Australia’s Hottest: Withdrawn

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THE last really sensational global warming story broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has been withdrawn – but not by the ABC.  There has been not a word on the new development from the ABC or any of the other media outlets that originally reported on it.

The story made headlines around the world following a media release from the University of Melbourne and the endorsement of David Karoly:

‘The last 50 years in Australia have been the warmest.

The researchers from Melbourne University used 27 different natural indicators like tree rings and ice cores to come to their conclusion, which will be a part of the next United Nations intergovernmental panel on climate change report.

The findings show that no other period in the last 1,000 years matches the temperature rises Australia and the region has experienced in the last 50 years.’[1]

Sounds like another hockey stick doesn’t it? Following scrutiny at Steve McIntyre’s blog ‘Climate Audit’ the paper how been withdrawn.[2] Dr Karoly advised Mr McIntyre thus:

Dear Stephen,

I am contacting you on behalf of all the authors of the Gergis et al (2012) study ‘Evidence of unusual late 20th century warming from an Australasian temperature reconstruction spanning the last millennium’

An issue has been identified in the processing of the data used in the study, which may affect the results. While the paper states that “both proxy climate and instrumental data were linearly detrended over the 1921–1990 period”, we discovered on Tuesday 5 June that the records used in the final analysis were not detrended for proxy selection, making this statement incorrect. Although this is an unfortunate data processing issue, it is likely to have implications for the results reported in the study.

The journal has been contacted and the publication of the study has been put on hold.

This is a normal part of science. The testing of scientific studies through independent analysis of data and methods strengthens the conclusions. In this study, an issue has been identified and the results are being re-checked.

We would be grateful if you would post the notice below on your ClimateAudit web site.

We would like to thank you and the participants at the ClimateAudit blog for your scrutiny of our study, which also identified this data processing issue.

Thanks, David Karoly

Print publication of scientific study put on hold
An issue has been identified in the processing of the data used in the study, “Evidence of unusual late 20th century warming from an Australasian temperature reconstruction spanning the last millennium” by Joelle Gergis, Raphael Neukom, Stephen Phipps, Ailie Gallant and David Karoly, accepted for publication in the Journal of Climate.
We are currently reviewing the data and results.

If only they would now withdraw the next United Nations intergovernmental panel on climate change report, the carbon tax, and…

 

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1] Last 50 years were Australia’s hottest: study
Matthew Carney, May 17, 2012
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-17/study-says-last-fifty-years-were-australias-hottest/4016304/?site=science/memory&topic=latest

2] Gergis et al Put on Hold, Steve McIntyre, June 8, 2012 http://climateaudit.org/2012/06/08/gergis-et-al-put-on-hold/

Deception is Part of ABC Staff Culture

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RON Brunton, a former Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Director, explains how deception, in particular the withholding of important information, is part and parcel of the organisation’s culture:

“Before I became a director, I had an experience that demonstrated how staff and management were quite prepared to deceive members of the Board if they thought it necessary to protect an individual or program unit. After I wrote a Courier Mail column about having been invited, and then suddenly disinvited, to appear in a television debate on Aboriginal issues, the Prime Minister’s Office contacted the ABC for an explanation. The incident itself was not particularly important, and the actual details are too involved to recount here. However, in the correspondence that followed, which came to involve the then Chairman, it was clear that Donald McDonald had been given information that I knew to be false.

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Australian Broadcasting Corporation Endorses More ‘Junk Science’

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ELEANOR HALL: Australian delegates to an international conference on global sustainability delivered a warning today that the earth is reaching a point where it’s changing beyond our control.

  Almost 3,000 scientists have been in London for the conference to discuss the relatively new field of earth system science.

That’s how the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) began a story today on ‘The World Today’.

Want to really know what the conference is about and how qualified the scientists delivering the message about tipping points are?

Read ‘The Royal Society’s Blatherfest’ by Donna Laframboise here:

http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2012/03/24/the-royal-societys-blatherfest/

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Donna Lafromboise is the author of ‘The Delinquent Teenager’ all about the IPCC and how unqualified its ‘experts’ are.
http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/my-book/

Unbalanced Reporting on Solar Power: Peter Lang

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Peter Lang sent a complaint to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) about last night’s 7:30 Report on solar power.  Here is a slightly reworded versions with hyperlinks added:

“The ABC 7:30 report has improved greatly since Leigh Sales and Chris Uhlmann took over from Kerry O’Brien.  However, there have been lapses.  Last night’s 7:30 report on solar power was atrociously biased.  ABC has been strongly biased towards renewable energy for over 20 years.  Last night’s program was unbalanced, lacked objectivity and presented wrong and misleading information.

They interviewed two of the extreme renewable energy proponents in Australia (Matthew Wright and Tristan Edis) but did not provide balance by getting a competent person to explain the cost of renewable energy and what the costs do to the price of electricity (and therefore to Australia’s economy).

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