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Here's a breathless email sent to me today by an anonymous source.

It's penned by NRSP's Tom "I can't disclose my funding sources [7] " [7] Harris in reaction to a CBC rebroadcasting of the Fifth Estate's "The Denial Machine" [8] documentary last night:

From: Tom Harris [mailto:tom.harris@nrsp.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 4:22 PM
To: Tom Harris
Subject: Global Warming Propaganda continues on CBC TV tonight - at least the sixth rebroadcast of "The Denial Machine"

DeSmogBlog note: Tom, you forgot that it was also rebroadcast nationally on ABC Australia! [9]

The CBC are again re-broadcasting "The Denial Machine" this evening:
see http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/ [8] . Unless they have engaged in significant
editing (they have not in past re-broadcasts as far as I can tell), the programme includes video segments of our Chairman Dr. Tim Ball that were secretly taken by CBC camera operators without his permission and used even after he told them he would not be interviewed by them. Please let me know if you would like to speak with Dr. Ball about this atrocious situation.

DeSmogBlog Note: Shortly after the Globe and Mail ran a scathing piece [10] about Tim Ball and the oil industry-backed "Friends of Science," Ball was ducking media left and right. That was until the CBC caught up with him at a public event at a Dawson Creek Oil and Gas convention. In fact, here's a clip of Ball from the "Denial Machine" episode. [11] Does this look like "secret footage taken by CBC camera operators?"

In addition, the CBC has been told over and over about the many science and other mistakes in the programme but they apparently don't care and continue to broadcast it repeatedly anyways. I have alerted the network to the fact that shows of this nature are a direct violation of their policy book rules that require fair and balanced coverage of issues important to Canada but they apparently don't care about that either.

DeSmogBlog note: what was not fair and balanced in this piece? The "deniers" in the "denial machine" were interviewed by the 5th Estate and given a lot of airtime to defend their positions. Like Fred Singer does so eloquently in this clip from the documentary. [12] [12]

Even the programme title is misleading - nobody "denies" climate change. The scientists they feature may believe that humankind causes little of the change, or that the change (even if partly human induced) does not constitute a crisis. This is a far cry from denying "climate change". When somebody hear that scientist X denies "climate change", it, by definition, implies that the scientist expects the climate to remain static forever and destroys the scientist's credibility ­ is this why the term "climate denier" is used regularly by people like those who put together tonight's programme?

DeSmogBlog note: "climate deniers" is common vernacular used to refer to the small group of individuals who deny the overwhelming scientific evidence that climate change is happening and/or it is being caused by human activity and/or the effects of climate change will be overwhelmingly bad for us and the planet.

They also say that only a "small number" of scientists disagree with the Suzuki/IPCC/Al Gore point of view ­ that is also nonsense, as many of you receiving this e-mail know well.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss this further.

Sincerely,

Tom Harris, B. Eng., M. Eng. (thermofluids) Executive Director Natural
Resources Stewardship Project P.O. Box 23013 Ottawa, Ontario K2A 4E2

Phone: 613-234-4487
Web: www.nrsp.com [13]

DeSmogBlog note: And for more on Tom Harris, Tim Ball and the NRSP, please take a moment to read a sampling of other DeSmogBlog stories we have done over the last while:

NRSP: Not Really Science People [14]

NRSP Controlled by Energy Lobbyists [15]

NRSP: Climate Change Deniers-Are-Us [16]

Lonely NRSP Experts Shouting in the Wind [17]

Ball Bails on Johnson Lawsuit [18]

Oil Companies Funding Friends of Science, Tim Ball takes the Brunt [19]

Are the Estonians Funding the NRSP? [7]

Sincerely,

Kevin Grandia, BA (social science), MBlog, PrD (proud dad)