MSNBC: burying Climategate news?
Earlier today I was rounding up stories to read on Climategate. I found one on MSNBC.com:
U.N. climate chief: Hacked e-mails did damage
The problem is that the link now takes you to a different article titled U.N. holds out hope for climate deal, and story about Copenhagen, replete with a picture of a melting ice sculpture of a polar bear.
Perhaps I copied the wrong link? Nope.
I Googled for the article title, and it too linked to the new story. Searching the Google results I found a link to Newsvine.com, which MSNBC.com uses for comment threads. Here’s a screenshot from Newsvine.com:
Newsvine
Here’s the link to the story at Newsvine:
U.N. climate chief: Hacked e-mails did damage
Notice that the Newsvine page has the original title of the story U.N. climate chief: Hacked e-mails did damage and the article summary matches the title. The article was seeded at Newsvine at 7:48 am on December 6.
Now click the Read Article button on the Newsvine website and see what article you get.
Could this just be an innocent mistake? Sure, but why would MSNBC post a new article and use a previous article’s ID number? It’s not like it’s an update to the original story.
Here’s a very similar story that is still available on ABCnews.com that I found around the same time this morning:
UN Climate Chief: Hacked E-Mails Are Damaging
So why is the MSNBC story gone? It didn’t pass peer review? The new story has value added data? They wanted to hide the damage?
I’m not big on conspiracy theories, but the mainstream media does have a habit of slanting things to their viewpoint. I did have a somewhat similar experience yesterday morning with MSNBC.com quickly cycling a Climategate story off the front page as I discussed here.
Is this a case of life imitating art? Here’s an excerpt from the novel 1984 with only minor changes:
“As soon as Winston had dealt with each of the messages, he clipped his speakwritten corrections to the appropriate copy of The Times MSNBC and pushed them into the pneumatic tube. Then, with a movement which was as nearly as possible unconscious, he crumpled up the original message and any notes that he himself had made, and dropped them into the memory hole to be devoured by the flames.”
Apologies to George Orwell.
