“Bill Nye is the anti-science guy when it comes to global warming and hurricanes” (2011-08-30). Dr. Ryan Maue seems annoyed with how little traction with his denial science is getting, so he’s going to give political whining a try at his Policlimate blog. Why? Because as he says “Anthony typically avoids political issues” (I still rubbing my eyes over that). Luckily Anthony Watts seems willing, this one time, to dabble in politics by cross-posting Ryan’s rant about Bill Nye’s recent appearance on Fox News.
You know the denialists have had their asses publicly handed to them when they try to re-write an event after the fact by nit-picking someone’s live TV responses intended for a general audience (and when we talk about Fox audiences we’re talking really general) and then declare post facto victory because of imperfect grammar or getting a measurement wrong. They can also be reliably expected to complain about “tone”.
The title of this YouTube copy is “Bill Nye insists the earth is warming though data shows it is not.” and has comments disabled. Denialism writ tiny.
Seems Bill Nye didn’t play along with Fox News “Freedom Watch” guest host Charles Payne’s attempt to describe concern about our changing climate as “apocalyptic”, “irresponsible”, or to assert that there’s a bit of warming “but that’s not from man”. When Payne realized that Bill Nye wasn’t serving as a fig-leaf for Fox News’ preferred scientific assertions he pulled out the patented Fox News escape hatch of but… Al Gore! ending thus:
“We brought you on because we knew you could connect the dots,” Payne interrupted. “Although the route you’ve taken is still confusing some of the viewers.” – Fox Business Host Accuses Bill Nye of ‘Confusing Viewers’ with Science
So six minutes of interrupted reality-based answers to leading questions balances endless hours of Glenn Beck conspiracy theories? That’s “Fair and Balanced” for you.
Wott's Up With That? 
Bill Nye is a well-informed, mainstream science guy. The Fox News people were misinformed if they though otherwise.
[Surely by “well-informed, mainstream science guy” you mean “part of the conspiracy”? – Ben]
Programs like this are not serious. They are just fillers to pretend that issues are being discussed in between the sport and celebrity gossip.
The white guy with those eye-brows got side tracked into talking about racism and what he said about it was a bit confusing and very irrelevant to hurricanes and global warming.
The black guy is not an expert on climate and even said that he didn’t bother to research anything. He just took some guys word for it that temperatures had risen.
It’s not a serious debate, discussion or conversation. Programs like these are an insult to the viewers. They probably have a regulatory requirement to include some “science” content.
[You know, you might be on to something. – Ben]
I always figured Bill Nye would be a lover, not a hater. The host brings up racism, and he counters with talk about sex. Haha.
Seriously, though, this interview ticks me off. The caption “Al Gore Likens Global Warming Skeptics to Racists” is complete BS. If you listen to it all, the man was using an analogy to explain how cultural change can happen. Remarks like this and one I heard from a clip of “The Five” borders on the slanderous/libelous.
More importantly back to the interview, why does the racism thing even need to come up at all when talking about science with Bill Nye?!?!?
[I wish he’d said “breed” instead of “have sex”. but that’s live TV for you! – Ben]
I am sad to say, this variety of “Murdoch Propaganda Churnalism” is not isolated and flourishes down under in Oz, where he legally owns 70% of Australia’s print media!
The Conversation – Event horizon: the black hole in The Australian’s climate change coverage
Wow, I can only imagine going to the newsstand only to find over 70% of the papers to be tabloids.
[70% of viewers/readership. Other media are out-spent and out-promoted I think. – Ben]
Not to interrupt your ongoing orgy of self-congratulation… but do you know if Nye has given any response to Watts’ re-creation of his “Climate 101” experiment (and presumed falsification)?
replicating-al-gores-climate-101-video-experiment-shows-that-his-high-school-physics-could-never-work-as-advertised/
[You mean like here a month ago? You don’t know the difference between an experiment and a demonstration, do you? In future, please don’t interrupt my orgies. – Ben]