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From: John McLean [mailto:mcleanj@connexus.net.au]
Sent: November 12, 2007 10:00 PM
To: Four Corners
Cc: mark.scott@abc.net.au; kim.dalton@abc.net.au;
board@your.abc.net.au; mediawatch@your.abc.net.au; Tom
Harris
Subject: Fwd: About the CBC Programme
broadcast on Australian TV, "The Denial Machine"
Dear Four Corners,
(Please note that this email is copied to Mark Scott,
Kim Dalton, the ABC board and Media Watch, as well as
to Tom Harris.)
I have received the email below from Tom Harris in Canada
in regard to "The Denial Machine", a program
shown on Four Corners on 26 February 2007.
The Four Corners web site prominently features the words
"Investigative TV journalism at its best" so
I wonder how you reconcile that statement with the deception
and connivance with activists by the program's makers,
the CBC.
Tom Harris and Tim Ball, the latter one of the scientists
deceived by the camera crew for TDM, have recently put
together a series of articles responding to the latest
update of TDM. They cite several factual errors in the
program, as well as detail CBC's lack of ethics. Links
to their newspaper articles are included as well as a
complete document in Word format.
I am very disappointed with the ABC's ready acceptance
of such partisan journalism and I would like some reassurances
from the ABC, and Four Corners in particular, that it
will be more circumspect with the integrity of its reports
in future.
yours faithfully,
John McLean
Croydon, Victoria, Australia
----------------------
Dear Mr. McLean,
Due to your strong interest in the science of climate
change and the way in which this highly complex field
is covered in mass media, I thought you would be interested
in our recent article (attached as a Word file) about
the many flaws in the CBC Fifth Estate programme “The
Denial Machine”. As you can see from our analysis of the
show, the producers have not only made a number of unforgivable
(and likely intentional) blunders but they have also broken
standard ethical and professional journalistic standards
ascribed to by most media throughout the free world. Specifically,
we itemize how the programme clearly violates a number
of the rules for public broadcasting in Canada as specified
by the CBC’s “Journalistic Standards and Practices”. I
have been told that “The Denial Machine” was also broadcast
in Australia so feel free to forward this e-mail to the
relevant authorities at that network.
Here are the five parts of the series we wrote this week
for the Canada Free Press Web site. I also attached a
complete version of the piece for your reading convenience.
Sincerely,
Tom Harris, B. Eng., M. Eng. (thermofluids)
Executive Director
Natural Resources Stewardship Project
P.O. Box 23013
Ottawa, Ontario K2A 4E2
Canada
Phone: 613-234-4487
Web: www.nrsp.com
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