To: Michelle Butt, WBAL News Director
Tell WBAL: Stop Allowing Your Reporters to Deny Climate Change
Please publicly correct the false claims about climate change made by WBAL meteorologist Tony Pann and ensure that all WBAL staff report the scientific facts of human-caused climate change and its impact on the weather system.
Why is this important?
I’ve lived in Baltimore for twenty years, and I’ve never experienced storms of the intensity we’ve had in the last few years. From last June's intense derecho to the damage wrought by Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy, each event is another reminder of the way that fossil fuel pollution is changing our climate and making our weather system more dangerous. Television viewers like me rely on our broadcast meteorologists to inform us about the ways that climate is influencing our weather system. But unfortunately, I can’t count on the information I get from Channel 11 (WBAL).
WBAL meteorologist Tony Pann denies that the climate is even changing, and has written a series of blog posts that contain false accusations, misstatements, and outright misinformation. Pann has written that global warming “stopped” in 1998, and that “dramatic cooling” has taken place ever since. Pann is a conspiracy theorist who has repeatedly alleged that climate scientists have “manipulated data,” and even once theorized that climate might be changing because Earth is raising its vibration from a 3rd dimensional reality to the 5th. Seriously. After learning about Tony Pann’s history of misinformation, I decided I needed to act. Along with University of Maryland climate scientist Eugenia Kalnay, I sat down to discuss WBAL’s climate coverage with the station’s news director, Michelle Butt. Ms. Butt said she takes climate change seriously, but she refused to take action to correct the misinformation being spread by one of her meteorologists.
As a journalistic institution, WBAL has a responsibility to immediately stop the virulent climate change denial spouted by one its reporters. Join me in urging WBAL news director Michelle Butt to correct claims made by Tony Pann, and to take action to ensure that her staff report scientific facts about climate change, not misinformation.
WBAL meteorologist Tony Pann denies that the climate is even changing, and has written a series of blog posts that contain false accusations, misstatements, and outright misinformation. Pann has written that global warming “stopped” in 1998, and that “dramatic cooling” has taken place ever since. Pann is a conspiracy theorist who has repeatedly alleged that climate scientists have “manipulated data,” and even once theorized that climate might be changing because Earth is raising its vibration from a 3rd dimensional reality to the 5th. Seriously. After learning about Tony Pann’s history of misinformation, I decided I needed to act. Along with University of Maryland climate scientist Eugenia Kalnay, I sat down to discuss WBAL’s climate coverage with the station’s news director, Michelle Butt. Ms. Butt said she takes climate change seriously, but she refused to take action to correct the misinformation being spread by one of her meteorologists.
As a journalistic institution, WBAL has a responsibility to immediately stop the virulent climate change denial spouted by one its reporters. Join me in urging WBAL news director Michelle Butt to correct claims made by Tony Pann, and to take action to ensure that her staff report scientific facts about climate change, not misinformation.