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Sustainable Economy > Published by Joss Garman, August 27th 2010 at 1:39 pm

Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate scientist

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Towards the end of last year – around the same time as the Copenhagen Climate Conference – The Sunday Telegraph was just one media outlet publishing denial myths promoted by prominent right wing blogger, Richard North. But their story about IPCC chief, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, is the latest to be completely debunked – having been quietly retracted by the newspaper.

The article was published in December with the headline: ‘Questions over business deals of UN climate change guru Dr Rajendra Pachauri’. Today The Guardian has detailed the lies told and the smears made; referring to the independent KPMG report, destroying claims made by the newspaper.

It was not until this week that The Sunday Telegraph retracted the article. They have since apologised for smearing an innocent man with libelous claims, but only after Pachauri instructed lawyers to sue the paper. Richard North, one of the authors of the lengthy Telegraph piece still boasts on his blog of the Telegraph’s ‘non-apology’ and reiterates his original smears.

North has released false information a number of times in regard to the IPCC. He was also the source of the since discredited ‘Amazongate’ story. In that episode, it was The Sunday Times that published false and flawed claims against the IPCC in a piece carrying a note at the bottom saying, ‘additional reporting by Richard North’. That story has been traced to North’s blog in a post on Climate Safety.

The ‘Amazongate’ scandal led to The Sunday Times being forced to retract their article, and also saw them investigated by the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) – thanks to courageous climate scientist Dr. Simon Lewis, of Leeds University, who refused to back down after he was misrepresented. Lewis, like Pachauri, wouldn’t accept anything less than an apology.

Separately to all of this, a German newspaper also retracted the non-scandal ‘Africagate’ – yet again peddled by Richard North.

The Sunday Telegraph apology this week is just the latest set back for the climate denial movement in recent weeks. In other blows:

• Left Foot Forward reported how the Daily Mail u-turned on climate change, accepting: “Global warming is real and deeply worrying.” This followed similar moves by Canada’s National Post, America’s Washington Post and CNN’s Chad Myers;

• All official reports into ‘Climategate’ exonerated the scientists;

• The Times exposed Exxon spending £1 million on climate denial;

• The New Yorker published an exposé on the Koch oil barons bankrolling climate denial to the tune of billions;

• World-leading climate denial campaigner, Anthony Watts, was caught tweeting links to the BNP;

• Reuters ran an article entitled, “Are Conservatives waking up to global warming?” - detailing the recent series of u-turns by Conservative media and commentators; and

• The New York Times asked: “Perhaps now we can put the manufactured controversy known as Climategate behind us and turn to the task of actually doing something about global warming.”

  • http://twitter.com/mattj_1972/status/22254353185 Matt Jeffs

    RT @leftfootfwd: Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate scientist: http://bit.ly/b08f11 reports @jossgarman

  • http://twitter.com/matt0wen/status/22254377025 Matthew Owen

    RT @leftfootfwd: Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate scientist: http://bit.ly/b08f11 reports @jossgarman

  • http://twitter.com/amolrajan/status/22255083121 amol rajan

    RT @leftfootfwd: Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate scientist: http://bit.ly/b08f11 reports @jossgarman

  • http://twitter.com/jossgarman/status/22255186328 Joss Garman

    RT @leftfootfwd: Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate scientist: http://bit.ly/b08f11 reports @jossgarman

  • http://twitter.com/sdbrook/status/22255420276 Stephen Brook

    Broken link! @leftfootfwd Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate scientist: http://bit.ly/b08f11

  • http://twitter.com/ctclimatechange/status/22255434260 Chattertrap Climate

    Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate scientist http://chtr.it/yhkR4X #climate

  • http://twitter.com/andy_s_64/status/22255569005 Andy Sutherland

    RT @leftfootfwd: Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate scientist: http://bit.ly/b08f11 reports @jossgarman

  • http://twitter.com/lockpickernet/status/22257649170 LockPickerNet

    Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate scientist: http://bit.ly/b08f11 reports @jossgarman via @leftfootfwd

  • http://twitter.com/swhitebread/status/22258517700 Sarah Whitebread

    RT @leftfootfwd: Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate scientist: http://bit.ly/b08f11 reports @jossgarman

  • http://twitter.com/rattlecans/status/22263110939 Ma

    RT @leftfootfwd: Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate scientist: http://bit.ly/b08f11 reports @jossgarman

  • http://twitter.com/yorkierosie/status/22263741900 yorkierosie

    RT @leftfootfwd: New post: Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate scientist http://bit.ly/b08f11

  • http://twitter.com/yorkierosie/status/22263741900 yorkierosie

    RT @leftfootfwd: New post: Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate scientist http://bit.ly/b08f11

  • http://twitter.com/yorkierosie/status/22264351781 yorkierosie

    RT @tonybovaird: Conservative climate change deniers swallowing their words on both sides of Atlantic http://bit.ly/b08f11 & http://bit. …

  • http://twitter.com/ecohouses/status/22266453689 Eco Houses

    Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate …: Towards the end of last year – around the same time… http://bit.ly/dayhJT

  • http://twitter.com/bill512/status/22263710494 Bill Perrett

    RT @leftfootfwd: New post: Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate scientist http://bit.ly/b08f11

  • http://twitter.com/bill512/status/22263710494 Bill Perrett

    RT @leftfootfwd: New post: Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate scientist http://bit.ly/b08f11

  • http://twitter.com/tonybovaird/status/22264238879 Tony Bovaird

    Conservative climate change deniers swallowing their words on both sides of Atlantic http://bit.ly/b08f11 & http://bit.ly/a0Rbmy

  • http://twitter.com/climatesafety/status/22270950375 Climate Safety

    Telegraph apologise to Dr Pachauri: http://bit.ly/baqlxm A trend is emerging from the media noise: http://bit.ly/c2413y @jossgarman

  • http://twitter.com/sky_jack/status/22272941274 Jack Watkins

    RT @climatesafety: Telegraph apologise to Dr Pachauri: http://bit.ly/baqlxm A trend is emerging from the media noise: http://bit.ly/c2413y @jossgarman

  • http://twitter.com/cooltribe/status/22274837860 Cooltribe

    Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate …: Towards the end of last year – around the same time… http://bit.ly/aysY3k

  • http://twitter.com/caspertk/status/22280042664 Casper ter Kuile

    RT @leftfootfwd: Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate scientist http://bit.ly/dayhJT

  • http://twitter.com/jackseale/status/22288391332 Jack Seale

    RT @leftfootfwd: New post: Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate scientist http://bit.ly/b08f11

  • klem

    This makes no difference to anyone. Pachauri is still responsible for turning the UN IPCC from a world respected organization into a globally recognized laughing stock. And as long as Pachauri remains the chairman, the IPCC will remain a laughing stock. I hope he keeps his job forever! He makes the job of climate denial so much easier.

  • http://twitter.com/apllywarch/status/22290745999 Llywarch apLlywarch

    RT @leftfootfwd: New post: Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate scientist http://bit.ly/b08f11

  • http://twitter.com/skepticscience/status/22295803994 John Cook

    Telegraph apologise to Dr Pachauri: http://bit.ly/baqlxm A trend is emerging from the media noise: http://bit.ly/c2413y

  • http://twitter.com/westwatcher/status/22323928676 West,Islam,Sharia

    RT @skepticscience: Telegraph apologise to Dr Pachauri: http://bit.ly/baqlxm A trend is emerging from the media noise: http://bit.ly/c2413y

  • http://twitter.com/paris_david/status/22324189715 David Paris

    RT @skepticscience: Telegraph apologise to Dr Pachauri: http://bit.ly/baqlxm A trend is emerging from the media noise: http://bit.ly/c2413y

  • http://twitter.com/jmquante/status/22324962903 J. Michael Quante

    More "climategate" fraud RT @skepticscience: Telegraph apologises to Dr Pachauri http://bit.ly/c2413y #green #p2

  • http://twitter.com/macdade/status/22327098660 bill davidson

    !!RT @ClimateDebate @skepticscience: Telegraph apologize 2 Pachauri http://bit.ly/baqlxm Trend emerges from media noise http://bit.ly/c2413y

  • http://twitter.com/climatedebate/status/22323812056 Climate Debate

    RT @skepticscience: Telegraph apologise to Dr Pachauri: http://bit.ly/baqlxm A trend is emerging from the media noise: http://bit.ly/c2413y

  • http://twitter.com/tonybovaird/status/22334755077 Tony Bovaird

    Conservative climate change deniers cooling down on both sides of Atlantic? http://bit.ly/b08f11 & http://bit.ly/a0Rbmy

  • http://twitter.com/carboncoach/status/22335061179 carboncoach

    RT @skepticscience: Telegraph apologise to Dr Pachauri: http://bit.ly/baqlxm A trend is emerging from the media noise: http://bit.ly/c2413y

  • http://twitter.com/trway1/status/22336514968 Rita

    RT @skepticscience: Telegraph apologise to Dr Pachauri: http://bit.ly/baqlxm A trend is emerging from the media noise: http://bit.ly/c2413y

  • http://twitter.com/ibstock_does/status/22339322804 Jon OFarrell Ibstock

    RT @skepticscience: Telegraph apologise to Dr Pachauri: http://bit.ly/baqlxm A trend is emerging from the media noise: http://bit.ly/c2413y

  • http://twitter.com/tonybovaird/status/22349638786 Tony Bovaird

    How Conservatives are no longer in climate change denial on both sides of Atlantic – http://bit.ly/b08f11 & http://bit.ly/a0Rbmy

  • http://twitter.com/vicforte/status/22357641829 Vic Forte

    RT @skepticscience: Telegraph apologise to Dr Pachauri: http://bit.ly/baqlxm A trend is emerging from the media noise: http://bit.ly/c2413y

  • http://twitter.com/ayes_ha/status/22461468268 Ayesha

    "Telegraph forced to retract lies and smears about climate scientist" and related posts http://ow.ly/18McsX

  • http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/08/world%e2%80%99s-most-famous-climate-sceptic-global-warming-a-%e2%80%98chief-concern%e2%80%99/ World’s most famous climate sceptic: Global warming a ‘chief concern’ | Left Foot Forward

    [...] articles detailing alleged scandals in the climate science community – Amazongate, Africagate and Pachaurigate – all had to be retracted, and apologies published. This in turn followed a series of independent [...]

  • http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/11/climategate-blogger-richard-north-in-new-racial-slur/ ‘Climategate’ blogger in new racial slur | Left Foot Forward

    [...] change the prominent right-wing blogger and occasional Telegraph writer Richard North, who was the source of much of the media controversy about the ‘climategate’ non-scandal, has used the phrase [...]

  • http://www.jossgarman.com/?p=689 ‘Climategate’ blogger in new racial slur | Joss Garman

    [...] change the prominent right-wing blogger and occasionalTelegraph writer Richard North, who was the source of much of the media controversy about the ‘climategate’ non-scandal, has used the phrase [...]