Not so subtle bias at the ABC

The ABC has been caught out, again, spinning the qualifications of various commentators on the climate.

From Andrew Bolt:

Green alarmist Ticky Fullerton on Lateline Business rings the leper’s bell before interviewing warming sceptic Professor Ian Plimer:

He is a geologist, not a climatologist… Ian Plimer by definition works closely with the mining industry.

Then come the questions from a woman who cannot believe a scientist could dare doubt her faith:

You are a greenhouse heretic… Is this scepticism genuine, or it it also about economic self interest?

Still, maybe this is just the ABC’s refreshingly hard-hitting style, applied to all who preach on global warming. So let’s see if Rajendra Pachauri, head of the IPCC, is similarly introduced on Lateline as “a mining engineer and economist, not a climatologist” who “by definition works closely with green groups and warming believers”:

Well, we are joined in the studio by the chairman of the Nobel Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr Rajendra Pachuari. Dr Pachauri is an economist, engineer and environmental scientist and he’s been the head of the IPCC for the past six years. Just tonight he was awarded an honorary doctorate of science from the University of NSW.

Hmm. No leper’s bell there. But perhaps Tim Flannery, then, is introduced as “a paleontologist and mammalogist, not a climatologist” who “by definition works closely with people who pay him to scare us about global warming”:

Joining us now is Professor Tim Flannery, arguably Australia’s best known popular scientist. He’s also the author of The Weather Makers and he was recently named Australian of the Year.

No leper’s bell there, either. And no question of the offensive “are you for real, or just for the cash” kind asked of Plimer, whose own many awards didn’t get a mention last night.

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