Blogging Tory flogs climate skeptic vid; tries to cover up

authordefault
on

As Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government prepares to abrogate Canada’s Kyoto commitment, it’s a concern to see his political backers also  promoting a climate change disinformation campaign on the sly. It smacks of political dirty trickery – tawdry and vaguely dishonest.

The principal disinformation vehicle this time around is a video series created by the oil-and-gas apologists at Friends of Science. Climate Catastrophe Cancelled: what your’e not being told about the science of climate change (see here, here, here, here and here) is available on the FOS website and has popped up a couple of times on YouTube.com. Whenever it does, we at the DeSmog have appended a comment, pointing out the degree to which FOS has been exposed as a pseudo-science astroturf group fronting for the Alberta energy industry.

When the FOS series appeared on YouTube again yesterday, we got curious about who was behind the repeated posts. So we followed up on the identity of the hotmail handle, “ferrethouse,” and we found Craig Smith, a Conservative Party activist and one of the founders of The Blogging Tories.

Here’s the link where we connected “ferrethouse” to Mr. Smith. If you go here, you get to BloggingTories.com and if you click on Mr. Smith’s name in the upper left corner, you go to his own website. If you search out the registration for that site, you get a bunch of fake information, including a telephone number with a non-existent 555 prefix.

It comes back to the old story: if these people aren’t ashamed of what they are doing, why do they go to such lengths to misrepresent themselves?

Political junkies might also remember that the Blogging Tories were embroiled in an earlier controversy after allegations that the Conservative Party itself set up the site as a third-party political voice.

Does this qualify as a pattern?

Related Posts

on

The deal would place 40 percent of California’s idle wells in the hands of one operator. Campaigners warn this poses an "immense" risk to the state — which new rules could help to mitigate, depending on how regulators act.

The deal would place 40 percent of California’s idle wells in the hands of one operator. Campaigners warn this poses an "immense" risk to the state — which new rules could help to mitigate, depending on how regulators act.
Opinion
on

Corporations are using sport to sell the high-carbon products that are killing our winters, and now we can put a figure on the damage their money does.

Corporations are using sport to sell the high-carbon products that are killing our winters, and now we can put a figure on the damage their money does.
on

Inside the conspiracy to take down wind and solar power.

Inside the conspiracy to take down wind and solar power.
on

A new report estimates the public cost of underwriting U.S. plastics industry growth and the environmental violations that followed.

A new report estimates the public cost of underwriting U.S. plastics industry growth and the environmental violations that followed.