Hi All,
Please
send this message out to the Alabama Associated Press Broadcasters Association
(particularly the faculty advisers) membership and/or post it on the website.
1. I know Birmingham ABC 33/40 Chief
Meteorologist James Spann was willing to speak for free and on short notice at
the annual conference last Saturday. However, please don’t have James Spann use AAPBA to
spread false and dangerous information. Don’t let him use AAPBA to ever
again publicly and without censure bully and mock a faculty adviser (as he did me)
with a doctorate and cross media reporting/editing experience which Spann himself
said several times is, “a lot harder” than what he does and we are “much
smarter” than him to be able to do it.
James Spann has a right to think
that global warming is not man-made. He does NOT have the right to lie to
young journalists as he did at the AAPBA sole session for students. He
lied when he said, “The vast majority of scientists believe that global
warming in natural.” If Spann said that on air he should be
fired. He also shouldn’t be permitted to use the station’s
logo on his blog to lie to your audience.
Perhaps Spann’s information is
just more than 15 years old. These days EVERY major scientific organization,
such as the 2006 Federal Climate Change Science Program, the U.S. National
Research Council, the American Geophysical Union, American Association for the
Advancement of Science, the U.S. National Academy of Science, the Joint Science
Academies of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the most reputable
peer-reviewed body of climate-change scientists in history), and the American
Meteorological Society to name a few
say that most of the global warming, “over the last 50 years is attributable
to human activities.”
In fact the only dissenting organization is the
American Association of Petroleum Geologists and gosh I wonder why?
2. Also, the non-profit organization
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) has an article (hyperlinked below)
about how the “superficial balance” in media coverage of presenting
“both sides” as if they were both viable and equally valid,
supported and reasonable. There are still lunatics who believe that
African Americans men and women of every race are intellectually inferior to
white men but no reputable news organization today interviews one of these
lunatics along side one person who says “It ain’t so” and
decides that’s balanced coverage.
On his blog, using the station’s
logo, Spann equates the opinion of the “TV weather men (he) knows”
with that of most of the world’s finest research scientists.
It’s not a matter of any
of us being “passionate” about our opinions. It’s about
reporting the truth (The vast majority of scientists say the evidence is
irrefutable that humans are causing global warming.) in a fair and accurate
manner. It’s about our ethics as journalists.
Below are two of many links of
interest. Thanks for taking action on this matter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1978
We sometimes have problems with our server
rejecting incoming email. If your reply to this email is returned to
you, PLEASE call me at the number below. Apologies...We are
working on it. Sincerely,
Rev. Dr. E-K. Daufin, Professor
Department of Communications
334.229.6885
Thank you in advance for your
Scholarly & Creative Activity
Referrals -
Lectures, Performances, Workshops,
Consultation Related Info: http://home.earthlink.net/~ekdaufin/