Wheeler Centre scam

From “Government advertising by any other name”: 

Poor writing can throw up a fog to hide dubious claims.

The Extravaganza of the Deakin Lectures is taking place at the moment in Melbourne, and Des Moore on Quadrant Online accused them of being a one-sided propaganda machine paid for by government money (though not in those exact words).

In response, The Wheeler Centre defended themselves on their blog and claim that Quadrant’s missed the point — they don’t need to do the debating thing, because bloggers do that (and they link to moi).

So the Wheeler unit, which is supported by the Victorian Government, EPA Victoria, Carbon Innovators Network, The Age, and the ABC et al defends a policy position taken by Government Departments, and minor clubs like, y’know, The UN,  and yet, it’s OK, there’s no fear of government funds being used to propagate a one-sided message, because JoNova is discussing the science (with no government funding, no industry sponsorship, and no university support). So that’s what they call, “balance”.

The rest of us call it government advertising. It’s just a different form. A government funded unit gets to use taxpayer dollars to prop up a government policy and help large investment funds and a stack of small businesses (friends) as well.  Curiously this is all supposedly relevant to Melbourne being designated a UNESCO city of Literature, whatever that is.

…

You can see the full list of presenters which includes Tim Flannery, and Malcolm-ETS-or-bust-Turnbull along with a swag of “sustainable” architects, experts in renewable somethings, and even Government secretaries of climate change. Go on, spot the skeptic.

There is a certain pettiness seeping throughout. After linking to Glikson’s start of the big debate on Quadrant, they don’t link to my reply to him, instead, they direct people to one of the most innocuous pages they can find on my site (so I beefed it up post hoc with links to the right pages). I wonder how many posts of mine they had to read to find that one? (I’m quite enjoying that thought). Their link to the Quadrant article returns a 404 error as well. Maybe they were just in a rush? [QO editor: Sure]

The religious fervor shines through, but sadly both science and literature are slogged in the race to sell the great carbon scare.

Read the unmissable article at joannenova.com.au

See also "Warmers Twitter"