Image Credit: NOAA
Those who were at Al Gore's keynote address to SEJ's 19th annual conference Friday witnessed the brief "town hall" moment during the Q&A, when a questioner sparred with Gore over whether he would acknowledge alleged errors in his Oscar-winning film, "An Inconvenient Truth."
The questioner challenged Gore's characterization of polar bears as endangered and asserted the bears' numbers were on the rise. Gore and the questioner jawed back and forth briefly; then the questioner was asked to yield the microphone to other questioners and sit down.
He refused, clinging to the mic, until the sound was cut off.
The questioner was Phelim McAleer, co-director/producer of an independent film, "Not Evil Just Wrong," which purports to tell "the true cost of global warming hysteria." His verbal jousting with Gore already is being portrayed on conservative blogs as another example of Gore dissembling. McAleer tweeted Friday about having his mike cut off as he tried to pose difficult questions to Gore, who's become a lightning rod to conservatives opposed to doing anything about climate change.
Some may wonder how he was able to get in a position to try to pick a public argument with Gore. Others may wonder why he was cut off..
I was the "bouncer" at the mic who asked McAleer to sit down - not because he challenged Gore, but because his time was up. I was stationed there to see that SEJ's ground rules for Q&A at our conference sessions were followed.
The Q&A ground rules, as explained at the beginning of the session, were the same as at all conference sessions - only SEJ members and working journalists get to ask questions, and the questions should be just that, not speeches. Brief followups also are permitted.
Phelim qualified as a member, apparently - he was wearing the requisite blue member badge. And he identified himself as an independent documentary producer. His question was entirely within the bounds of the ground rules, even if challenging to Gore. Hell, we like tough questions, don't we?
It was what followed that prompted me to ask him to sit down.
McAleer asked Gore if he'd done anything to correct "errors" a British judge had found in Gore's movie. Gore responded, though he declined to addess the alleged inaccuracies, saying the film had been approved overall for showing in schools in the UK.
McAleer then said Gore had misrepresented the status of polar bears as endangered from melting Arctic sea ice and alleged that the bears' numbers were increasing. The two jousted back and forth, saying the same thing repeatedly, so, with perhaps a dozen people waiting their chance to ask questions as well, I went to McAleer and asked him to sit down.
After a brief tug of war over the mic, it was cut off, and he sat down.
[As for McAleer's assertions that polar bears are increasing and unthreatened by global warming, an article debunking climate-change skeptics' claims that the bears are thriving was published in a 2008 issue of SEJournal. - Ed.]
Later, in the foyer, I spoke to McAleer, wanting to be sure he understood why he'd been cut off. He accused me and SEJ of censoring a journalist, and observed that we were shielding our speaker from tough questions. I responded that he had been free to ask his question and even got a chance to follow it up, but that he didn't have a right to monopolize the Q&A. He said he was simply trying to get Gore to answer his question. I told we gave him a chance to ask it, but we couldn't guarantee an answer to his satisfaction, and with both Gore and him simply repeating themselves, fairness dictated that he yield the mic to others waiting to pose their questions.
You can see and/or hear for yourself what happened, as Gore's speech was videotaped, and McAleer had an associate there filming as well. A clip already has been posted on conservative sites, and I suspect if it hasn't already, the mic cutoff will be cast by the same folks as a case of SEJ being "in the tank" for Gore, censoring those who would challenge him over the scientific evidence that climate change is real and that it's driven by human activity.
I wanted you to know the rest of the story.
