Tuesday, April 29, 2008

It's not all fun and games around here

So far, this blog has taken a fairly light hearted approach to things. However, after reading Pa's comment to the Bottom Feeders post, I got to thinking about an irate email I received a while back from one of my employer's finer members. Our Fine Member found it unconscionable that a conservation organization would be concerned about global warming and sought to set me--and my organization's bogus science--straight.

After Our Fine Member opened with:
"here's what I sent my buddies here in denver yesterday. So far, noone has has the fortitude to write me back:"
And accused me of being:
"a supporter of the eco-lemming/global alarmist movement that supports policy and advertisement (propaganda) efforts of a very scary movement regarding anthropogenic global warming."
I decided to pick up the phone and give Our Fine Member a call. As it turns out, Our Fine Member actually is Dilbert:
As for the bitter and unsuccessful scientists, they produced this number which tells us the earth actually is cooling.

When talking on the phone with Our Fine Member, he strongly encouraged me to research where my information was coming from because, as he points out, certain alarmist organizations may profit from the global warming frenzy and use their resources to promote further scare tactics. Well, that may or may not be, but upon researching our bitter and unsuccessful scientists, all I seem to come up with is a bunch of hubbub on how second-hand smoke is great.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Our Fine Member is a Rush Limbaugh fan. Did you know that Rush started reporting on his view of the world two decades ago -- in 1988? It was the year after Ronald Reagan abolished the Fairness Doctrine in news reporting, which required those offering opinions to provide perspectives of both sides of this issue. So, if you want people to believe that global warming is a hoax, there was the opening.

Okay, enough seriousness.

Now let me get back to that lunker stuff. I can't believe Nelli caught the big fish -- again! Of course it was no more of a native than that carp Josh caught. Gotta get these kids straight.

--Salmon Czar

Austin said...

It seems like the fundamental problem involves distinguishing between fact and opinion. If we could do this, it wouldn't matter if people like Rush (or any liberal quack, for that matter) produced one-sided programing because everyone could see that it was baseless opinion. It seems like the problems arise when someone tries to pass off opinion as fact.

Back to the subject of global warming, another fact/opinion problem arises when journalists report on climate change and feel they need to show "both sides", even though one side lacks scientific credibility. In these instances, one side is based in fact and the other side is based in opinion mascarading as fact, and the journalists and public are not critical enough to tell the difference.