Climategate 12

Readers question the Post's news judgment and slant

National Post Mon Nov 30 2009
By: Paul Russell


The National Post won both praise and criticism last week for its coverage of "Climategate." That scandal involves hundreds of private emails and documents, hacked from a computer server at the University of East Anglia in Britain, that seem to indicate that climate scientists conspired to overstate the case for man-made global warming.

The Post ran a large story on this issue two Saturdays ago on one of our inside news pages, then followed it up with at least six other stories or columns last week, almost all on the FP Comment page. Despite this ongoing coverage, some readers felt we still didn't do this story justice.

"I had expected to open my National Post [on Tuesday] morning to headlines about this man-made climate hoax," wrote Sue Reid. "Yet once again you have failed to do the right thing, opting for the safety of hiding the truth in the back pages of the Financial Post."

"How come the National Post isn't running the story of the century today on its front page?" asked Frank Hilliard. "These hacked files and emails show anthropogenic global warming is a myth at best, and a hoax at worst. So where is the National Post in all this?"

"I was dismayed to see that three great pieces on the emerging scandal in the world of climate science were

relegated to a page deep in the Financial Post," agreed Toby Yull. "My concern is that a lot of readers won't read [that page]. I want everyone to follow this story so that average people can rethink their allegiance to the notion of global warming before we reorganize world economies to fix a problem that may not be happening. This story should be on A3."

Other readers thanked us for our coverage of "Climategate," with special praise for the writers and editors of the FP Comment page.

"The hacked e-mails from the Climate Research Unit in Hadley, U.K., will clearly have a profound effect on next month's climate conference in Copenhagen," wrote Jeff Spooner. "However if you have been a regular reader of the National Post and its companion paper, the Financial Post, for the last couple of years, these revelations would have only confirmed what you already knew. Writers like Terence Corcoran and Peter Foster have regularly debunked the so-called settled science of global warming. The Post should be congratulated for being one of few sources of that truth."

- Is the National Post biased? That question seems to crop up fairly regularly, and it was asked again last week by readers.

A few of these queries were sparked by an editorial urging Canadians not to visit Cuba, "where the worst excesses of authoritarianism remain as entrenched as ever." To back that point up, the editorial quoted from a recent Human Rights Watch (HRW) report highlighting various injustices on the Caribbean island.

Even though the editorial clearly stated: "We have criticized HRW's biased, anti-Israel reporting in the past," that didn't deter a few readers from accusing us of hypocrisy by relying on the group for information. To back that up, a few pointed to a Post column headline last month, which questioned HRW's assessment of Israel's human rights record. It read: "Human Rights Watch: Lost in the Mideast."

"Oh I get it," wrote Doug Little. "Human Rights Watch is right when it comes to Cuba but wrong when it comes to Israel. Your hypocrisy is showing."

"How can [this contradiction] be?" asked Roy Weston. "Their goal is still the same, looking for human rights violations ... [I]t's not Human Right Watch that has a bias, it's the National Post, with its support for Israel under any circumstances."

Really, Mr. Weston? Then how does one explain the numerous notes that also came in last week, expressing disappointment and anger with our coverage of the Gilo controversy. Depending on your viewpoint, Gilo is either a settlement near Jerusalem or a neighbourhood within the city.

Our first news story on Gilo -- where 900 new homes are now being erected -- referred to it as a "settlement." That provoked at least a dozen readers to send in letters to correct our wording. Here's an example.

"Surely the editors should be sophisticated enough to realize that the apartments being built are within the city of Jerusalem and in no way can be construed as a settlement," wrote H.T. Keen. "The front page goes on to use the pejorative word 'settlers' to describe the future residents. This is what I would expect if the BBC or al-Jazeera had a newspaper in Toronto, but not from the National Post."

- While some readers may sometimes wonder if the Post is biased and one-sided, it's reassuring to hear about the occasions when their suspicions are shaken. This note came in after a Peter Goodspeed feature on an outspoken Afghan woman, titled "Leave my country."

"I think that the National Post has a right-of-centre editorial point of view; this bias upsets me," wrote Derek Wilson. "But then you publish this article about Malalai Joya, the former female Afghan parliamentarian and activist, calling for the withdrawal of foreign military forces from her homeland. I'm gobsmacked!"

- The Post strives to provide readers with the latest news and insightful commentary on the issues of the day -- it's refreshing to hear that this effort is appreciated.

"This letter is long overdue," wrote Morton Doran. "Probably the single most important thing I do each day to preserve and promote mental acuity and at the same time gain perspective is read the National Post. Stimulating, thought-provoking analysis by a broad range of serious thinkers is a delight."