I still maintain that one reason why “climategate” became as big news as it did is because it served the purpose of UK media, for them to have a UK story about which to write (versus the dominance of American, Middle Eastern, and Asian news).

And that includes such supposedly enlightened, liberal media like the Guardian and the BBC. They milked the “climategate” story for far more than they should, when it really was an open and closed case of email theft of scientists who were just grousing about being badgered by meaningless FOIA requests.