Posted on 06/20/2008 6:52:21 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
CBS News sinks to new low; publishes crackpot global warming story, attributes it to Associated Press, kills it with no retraction
The main headline was this: Seismic Activity 5 Times More Energetic Than 20 Years Ago Because Of Global Warming
This drew a lot of attention because of the total lack of verifiable science associated with it. I posted some graphs of USGS data showing that the opposite was true, that recent earthquake energy was actually less that in the early 1900s, and several commenters pointed out that the source of the story, a Dr. Tom Chalko, has some less than stellar associations with what I would describe as new age mysticism, such as Thiaoouba Prophecy and reading your Aura. He also writes a dandy piece entitled Global Warming: Can Earth EXPLODE? which is linked to a website he runs about bioresonance where you can buy a bioresonant shirt.
So with that sort of science background available on the web for anyone to see in a few seconds of searching, one wonders how CBS News was duped into running a story like this without even bothering to check into the author. This makes the historic Microsoft Word documents used by Dan Rather to discredit President Bushs National Guard Service look like a peer reviewed science paper.
The story gets weirder. CBS attributed the story on their website to the Associated Press (AP) and you can see that clearly in the screen capture of the story [at link]. Odd thing though, there is no byline, no story author as you usually see with an AP story . . . .
After apparently learning of the less than scientific associations of the lead author of the research, CBS removed it from their website as of about 3 p.m. EST on June 19. This was the original link:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/18/tech/main4191556.shtml
Here is where it gets interesting, after CBS pulled the story from their website, I did some searches for it on the Associated Press website at www.ap.org thinking it would still be there.
The story is not found in searches at www.ap.org using Tom Chalko or earthquake global warming
At the www.ap.org search, for earthquake(s) we find many stories either side of it on June 18th:
But nothing about the Chalko story. Putting in the authors name Tom Chalko also yields nothing on ap.org. I wasnt content with that, so I asked my radio station newsroom at KPAY to run a search on the AP wire stories they receive; nothing turned up. I also asked the editor of our local newspaper, the Chico Enterprise Record, to run a search, and he also found no evidence that AP had transmitted this story.
A further point- it seems to be only connected to CBS News, and their attribution to the AP appears when I do Google News searches such as this one:
earthquakes global warming Associated press or Tom Chalko AP the only association that appears is the CBS story with (AP) in it, as shown in the screencap [at link].
CBSNBCABCCNNETC = No credibilty. It really is a waste of time to watch them. More and more people are catching on to this fact.
So, does CBS have to pay AP for using a made up story?
Chalko-full-of-nuts.
You have a point.
AlBore is deeply saddened :(
bump.
that is a surprise
NBC and MSNBC
NOT
I was at the docs yesterday waiting for surgery , anyway while in the waiting room they had NBC on.
My wife asked me where I was going to sit and I said anywhere away from that utter garbage on the TV, I have no desire to watch this channel degrade themselves rooting and cheerleading for Obama, Wouldn’t be bad if they could actually tell the truth about politics for a change
well one guy nodded if he agreed and a girlie guy from up north(seems many of them are nowadays,) looked with disgust
at me.
ARF
Anyway I talked to a lady yesterday and told her about Obama doubt her and her family will be voting for him now
Razor sharp journalistic instincts. Takes years to hone. You amateurs will never be able to match da pros.
I still have this link to the original story.
Astral travel, well how special. Doodoodoodoodoodoodoodooo........
She’s a real beaut.
Professional journalists aren’t much better than professional teachers these days. The best J-schools teach people how to “rip and read” and the “5 Ws”; even how to “construct” a story (inverted pyramid).
But it’s all about form and not substance. Kids are taught what to think without ever being taught how to think. Most people these days - especially the MTV crowd - couldn’t alphabetically sort 10 random names from a phone book if pressed to do so.
Most news writers in most TV newsrooms do nothing more than change a few words from copy they pulled from a newspaper, wire story or website without ever once asking if it could be true. Their job is to get the product on the air, not worry about the veracity of the words they put in the prompter.
How do I know this?
I’ve been working in TV news for almost 30 years.
The bottom line is that there is very little you can trust in newspapers or on TV these days.
As for seismic activity, I’m pretty sure that if everyone in China was to jump up and down in a precise sequence, that the entire Earth would crack in two.
There are three kinds of greenhouse gases: 1) water vapor - which is by far the most common, and natural; 2) carbon dioxide; and 3) methane. The “man-made” global warming morons focus on CO2, which is present in the atmosphere to the extent of 380 parts per million. Horrors! This is up from 320 ppm about 50 years ago, and they say it is all due to evil capitalists driving cars and burning wood in their ski condo fireplaces. The UN’s Kyoto Agreement and legislation proposed by socialists (both parties) in Congress will of course save the world.
The fact is, no one knows if the 60 ppm increase is all due to human activity. And know one knows if it is really a threat. More than likely, it is a minor blip compared to the activity of the sun, and its impact on our climate. What is known, is that normal precipitation (i.e., weather) on earth offsets the warming effect of greenhouse gases, making the earth very comfortable, thank you. Normal weather acts as a thermostat vs. normal water vapor.
I suggest reading “Climate Confusion” by Roy W. Spencer, and also “Unstoppable Global Warming -Every 1,500 Years” by Fred Singer & Dennis Avery. The first is superb. The second presents a theory that the sun’s cycles of activity are the main cause of cooling and warming periods on earth, happening about every 1,500 years.
It says he’s a doctor, so what he says must be true. What more fact-checking could you possibly need?
Al Gore wrote it.
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