Hannity Attacks Al Gore To “Debunk” Global Warming
Reported by Ellen - December 5, 2009 -
Another Hannity show, another attack on global warming science without bothering to discuss any science. Nor was there the inconvenience of having to talk about rising oceans or melting glaciers. In last night’s (12/4/09) screed, Sean Hannity crowed that Climategate “has officially reached Al Gore’s doorstep” and, according to Hannity, caused him to cancel an appearance at the U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen. While it’s true that Gore has canceled an appearance there, Hannity presented no evidence to indicate Climategate had anything to do with it. Furthermore, Hannity neglected to mention that Gore will make other appearances at the summit. Nonetheless, Hannity rattled on about how two members of the Academy of Motion Pictures are asking Gore to return his Oscar and then called Gore a hypocrite for flying on a private jet, using a “gas guzzling Town car,” living in a large house and having a houseboat. All that made Hannity conclude, “It’s safe to say that Climategate has revealed that global warming and that movement is run by hacks and frauds and given that Al Gore personifies the movement, maybe that shouldn’t come as any surprise.” With video.
After Hannity announced that Republicans on The Hill are seeking Congressional hearings into Climategate, he brought on Sen. James Inhofe, who brags about his anti-global warming stance on the home page of his Senate website. But instead of enlightening viewers as to what kind of investigation Inhofe hopes to conduct, Hannity asked Inhofe whether Gore should give back his Oscar.
To be fair to Inhofe, he tried to discuss the substance of his opposition to President Obama’s stance on the issue. Inhofe called it “scary” to think that Obama will go to Copenhagen and “announce that United States is going to reduce their emissions by, I think they said, 17% by 2020.” Inhofe was also horrified that Obama will (according to Inhofe) commit $10 billion a year to help developing nations “do something about emissions in their countries.”
But Hannity interrupted Inhofe in order to go back to smearing the CRU scientists via the hacked emails discussed the night before on the show. “Why would scientists – what is motivating them to purposely distort, manipulate facts and lie to the world community? What is the political agenda behind it?”
Sheesh, talk about projection. If Hannity isn’t the king of fact distortion and manipulation then my name isn’t Ellen but the Queen of Sheba.
In fact, Hannity engaged in a bit of fact distorting and manipulating right in that segment. He said, “59%, Rasmussen’s saying, that they believe that the global warming data that we’ve been hearing about is rigged.” Actually, what Rasmussen found is that, “Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Americans say it’s at least somewhat likely that some scientists have falsified research data to support their own theories and beliefs about global warming.” (my emphasis). That’s a far cry from saying that all global warming data is rigged. In fact, Rasmussen’s own poll suggest otherwise because it also found that a plurality (46%) of Americans say global warming is a major problem.
And while Hannity was throwing the dirt at Gore, he didn’t mention, as AP reported (H/T Crooks and Liars), that oceans are rising, droughts and wildfires have gotten more severe, ice sheets have lost trillions of tons and new ship passages opened through the Arctic's once-frozen summer sea ice.
If Hannity had any interest in the truth, he’d discuss actual climate data when trying to argue that global warming is a myth, instead of hyping phony side issues about Al Gore.
You can contact the show at [email protected] or your Fox News at [email protected]
