{"id":336429,"date":"2024-07-14T08:28:19","date_gmt":"2024-07-14T06:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=336429"},"modified":"2024-07-14T08:28:21","modified_gmt":"2024-07-14T06:28:21","slug":"french-government-fines-tv-news-for-allowing-a-skeptic-to-speak-without-being-challenged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=336429","title":{"rendered":"French government fines TV news for allowing a skeptic to speak without being challenged"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From JoNova <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jo Nova<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We know what secrets they fear the most, by how they overreact<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In France, the second largest news network let an economist go on air and declare he thought global warming was a lie and a scam used to justify State intervention. He even went on to say it is a form of totalitarianism. Shockingly (to the regulators Arcom<\/em>), the CNEWS TV hosts did not contest this, and nor did anyone else in the studio. For this, 11 months later, the TV channel is being fined \u20ac20,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too close to the truth then?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A popular French rolling news channel has been fined for broadcasting climate scepticism unchallenged<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By Saskia O\u2019Donoghue, EuroNews<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the programme, prominent economist Philippe Herlin shared personal climate scepticism \u2013 but was not contradicted by anybody else in the TV studio, including the hosts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnthropogenic global warming<\/strong><\/a> is a lie, a scam\u2026 Explaining to us that it is because of Man, no, that is a conspiracy, and why does that have so much weight?\u201d, Herlin said. \u201cBecause it justifies the intervention of the State in our lives, and it absolves the State from having to reduce its public spending\u2026 It is a form of totalitarianism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, the real crime here is not that he said the unthinkable, but that the TV crew didn\u2019t correct him:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After investigation, Arcom<\/strong><\/a> found that CNews\u2019 lack of reaction was a \u201cfailure\u201d<\/strong> to meet the obligations of the channel \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps if they\u2019d laughed at him, called him petty names, and treated him like a leper it would have been OK?  (No, seriously, there is a razor point here. There are bound to be past examples where the only response to a skeptic was to call them a climate denier<\/em>, and Arcom was apparently happy with that, since they\u2019ve never used this fine before.) Does Arcom approve of namecalling or social opprobrium as a \u201cbalanced response\u201d? Oh. Yes. They. Do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regulators go on to explain that  the channel:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026is required to ensure an honest presentation of controversial issues,<\/strong> in particular by ensuring the expression of different points of view<\/strong><\/em>\u201d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which must be a new requirement since French TV has relentlessly hammered the establishment line in a one sided way for thirty years without needing any balance at all. And Arcom didn\u2019t fine them for shamelessly promoting government propaganda. Perhaps a French skeptic could ask Arcon if controversial government opinions need to be balanced \u201cin an honest presentation\u201d or whether it\u2019s only critics of the government who need to be held to account?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arcom found that the views shared \u201ccontradicted or minimised\u201d the scientific consensus on climate change \u201cthrough a treatment lacking rigour and without contradiction\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since when was it the job of journalists to promote government approved \u201cscience\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regulator is going out on a limb and sawing off the branch\u2026<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Officially, the regulators are trying to pretend they are not punishing the TV channel for putting on a skeptic, which would be a free speech issue, but it\u2019s clearly what they are doing. So they dress this up as a lack of balance, which accidentally exposes that they\u2019ve never cared a jot about balancing opinions before. Immediately, this opens up all kinds of interesting doors: for one, skeptics can start asking where the balance is on controversial government propositions? In most countries about half the population doesn\u2019t agree that mankind is solely responsible for \u201cclimate change\u201d. Where is their voice? The government is suggesting that solar panels can stop storms, and EV\u2019s will control floods, why isn\u2019t this a failure of the obligations of a news channel?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, skeptics can ask when this rule started and why the regulator missed so many past examples. Why aren\u2019t breaches the other way being fined too?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The overreaction IS the news story<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Ponder how afraid the believers must be if the mere opinion of an economist is so dangerous. This man is a not a scientist and every person in France has heard the evidence is overwhelming, climate change is real, and 130% of all scientists who ever lived know that CO2 threatens life on Earth. For three decades children have been trained to say that skeptics are funded by Big Oil, and motivated by money, and yet here is one guy who used the word \u201ctotalitarian\u201d and they all go off their rocker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why, perhaps because it suggests that believers are motivated by a bigger pot of money and power than skeptics ever could be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BACKGROUND<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Arcon<\/strong> stands for  theRegulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CNews is controlled by billionaire business magnate Vincent Bollor\u00e9 and has been compared to FOX in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edit: Approbration corrected to opprobrium. H\/t Robert Swan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In France, the second largest news network let an economist go on air and declare he thought global warming was a lie and a scam used to justify State intervention. He even went on to say it is a form of totalitarianism. Shockingly (to the regulators\u00a0Arcom), the CNEWS TV hosts did not contest this, and nor did anyone else in the studio. For this, 11 months later, the TV channel is being fined \u20ac20,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":336433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691824675,691829673,691818087],"class_list":{"0":"post-336429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-climate-scepticism","9":"tag-french-tv","10":"tag-global-warming","12":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/cliamte-change-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1037&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1pwh","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":224547,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=224547","url_meta":{"origin":336429,"position":0},"title":"C-SPAN Book TV broadcasts Morano speech on Great Reset","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"18\/10\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Morano argued that global elites are using the COVID pandemic and the threat of global warming to reshape the global economy and keep citizens under control.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/image-898.png?fit=848%2C565&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/image-898.png?fit=848%2C565&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/image-898.png?fit=848%2C565&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/image-898.png?fit=848%2C565&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":410750,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=410750","url_meta":{"origin":336429,"position":1},"title":"Guardian Ramps Up Efforts to Ban All Climate Dissent","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"28\/10\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"No green activist operation makes clearer why they need to ban free speech and cancel scientific debate to achieve Net Zero hegemony than the Guardian newspaper. 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