Here’s an excellent, detailed piece on the blatant lies being pushed by right wing media about the so-called “Climategate” emails, comparing the actual emails to the right’s out of context, deliberately distorted quotes. The level of outright dishonesty is shocking: ‘Climategate’ Redux: Conservative Media Distort Hacked Emails … Again.

Here’s one example out of many:

Cropped Email Falsely Suggests Scientist Said Science Was “Manipulated” In IPCC Report. Emails by then-Met Office scientist Peter Thorne to Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia in February 2005 were cropped to say:

<1939> Thorne/MetO:

Observations do not show rising temperatures throughout the tropical troposphere unless you accept one single study and approach and discount a wealth of others. This is just downright dangerous. We need to communicate the uncertainty and be honest. Phil, hopefully we can find time to discuss these further if necessary […]

<3066> Thorne:

I also think the science is being manipulated to put a political spin on it which for all our sakes might not be too clever in the long run. [Email excerpts, accessed 11/28/11]

Concerns Were Expressed About First Draft, Addressed In Final Version. This exchange was about the first draft, called the “zero order draft,” of a section on upper-air temperatures in the 2007 IPCC report. Thorne said “we need to communicate the uncertainty” and later added:

At this stage I’m pretty sure we can reconcile these things relatively simply. However, I certainly would be unhappy to be associated with it if the current text remains through final draft - I’m absolutely positive it won’t. [Emails 1939 and 3066, 4/2/05]

The final draft of the chapter noted that there are “substantial” “uncertainties” in this area, indicating that Thorne’s critique was incorporated into the chapter by the time it was released two years later:

Within the community that constructs and actively analyses satellite- and radiosonde-based temperature records there is agreement that the uncertainties about long-term change are substantial. Changes in instrumentation and protocols pervade both sonde and satellite records, obfuscating the modest long-term trends. Historically there is no reference network to anchor the record and establish the uncertainties arising from these changes - many of which are both barely documented and poorly understood. Therefore, investigators have to make seemingly reasonable choices of how to handle these sometimes known but often unknown influences. It is difficult to make quantitatively defensible judgments as to which, if any, of the multiple, independently derived estimates is closer to the true climate evolution. This reflects almost entirely upon the inadequacies of the historical observing network and points to the need for future network design that provides the reference sonde-based ground truth. [IPCC AR4, WG1, Chapter 3, 2007]

The Thorne emails were quoted out of context by the following media outlets:

Fox News’ Special Report, 11/29/11
foxnews.com, 11/22/11
Forbes, 11/23/11
National Review Online, 11/28/11
The Washington Times, 11/29/11
Hot Air, 11/22/11
Newsbusters, 11/22/11
American Thinker, 11/23/11
The New American, 11/23/11
glennbeck.com, 11/23/11