Marc Morano's Climate Denial Echo Machine

Kevin Grandia | February 17, 2009

By Kevin Grandia • Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - 09:55

One of the oldest public relations trick in the book is called the “echo chamber” and it plays off the idea that if you repeat something often enough it becomes the truth. Senator James Inhofe’s political spindoctor Marc Morano knows this technique well and he has been using for years to shotgun blast out misinformation on global warming to right-wing media and bloggers for years.

In turn, these bloggers and media outlets blast out their own rendition and before you know it the misinformation is bouncing around the internet and inboxes all over the world.

Researchers at Thinkprogress have released the list of climate doubters Morano relies on for his echo chamber. According to Brad Johnson who wrote the Thinkprogress article:

“Promoted on the Drudge Report and Fox News, Morano’s moronic misinformation enters mainstream discourse through columns by Barnes, George Will, Robert Samuelson, and others. Many in the Morano gang are funded by right-wing think tanks, though a few are committed activists, conspiracy theorists who believe their homebrew interpretations of climate data. Others are aging scientists with strong conservative beliefs, motivating them to challenge action on global warming not because they disbelieve its existence, but because they are ideologically opposed to regulation of pollution.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself. You can download a PDF version of the Morano list here: Morano Denier Gang. We’ll be adding more information about each of the individuals and their organizations over the coming days.

This month we’re giving away FREE copies Nobel Laureate Dr. Andrew Weaver’s new book Keeping Our Cool: Canada in a Warming World.

Go here to find out more details about DeSmogBlog’s monthly book give-away.

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marc morano
james inhofe (R-OK)
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morano climate
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Comments

Jason Leggett replied on

What a waste of taxpayer money!  This guy is one of the greatest sources of misinformation on climate change, and he works for our government.  His sole purpose as communications director for Inhofe is to put together these lists of deniers and to publicize any and all misinformation on the subject, even including creating his own distortions of the truth.  What’s most depressing is that his drivel is viewed by many Americans as a valid counterpoint to scientific sources, such as the IPCC AR4, forcing the scientific community to fight an uphill battle, despite the fact that nearly all scientific research is on their side.

We won’t convince Marc, because he’s paid to think otherwise.  Neither will we convince the many bloggers and inactivists, who have picked a side for ideological reasons, as you cannot reason a person out of a position that he did not reason himself into.  Hopefully, there are enough reasonable people out there with some minimal ability to think critically, who can still be persuaded that climate scientists might actually know what they’re talking about, and that an economist’s opinion on the matter is irrelevant.  As it is, public opinion does not reflect the present disparity in scientific evidence.