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Rex Murphy leaves the Globe and Mail, according to Peter Mansbridge

January 8, 2010

11:46 PM

Last July, I jotted down five ideas for how the Globe and Mail's new editor-in-chief, John Stackhouse, could improve his paper.

The first thing I wrote was "Less Rex Murphy, please". I was tired of reading Murphy's skepticism about the reality of climate change--a viewpoint we hear enough of in the National Post and other Canwest newspapers as well as on private radio stations.

This week, I was delighted to hear the CBC's chief correspondent, Peter Mansbridge, announce on the national news that Murphy will be writing his columns in the future for the National Post. It means no more Murphy on the opinion page of the Saturday Globe and Mail.

I don't know if Murphy jumped or if he was pushed by Stackhouse. Regardless, I'm looking forward to picking up a Saturday Globe and Mail without one of Murphy's typically ill-informed attacks on climate-change scientists.

I'll close with one scary thought. One of the five vacant seats in the Senate is for Newfoundland and Labrador. There are currently 49 Liberals, 46 Conservatives, two Progressive Conservatives and three others in the Senate.

If Harper fills all five vacancies with Conservatives, he will have a narrow majority in the upper house with the support of the two Progressive Conservatives.

And who best to represent Newfoundland and Labrador in the Senate than Murphy, a confirmed skeptic on climate change?

He has lost three provincial campaigns--once as a Tory and twice as a Liberal. That alone makes him a prime prospect for the chamber of sober, second thought.

In the 1980s, Murphy also worked for a former Liberal premier, Clyde Wells.

By appointing Murphy, Harper could burnish his credentials as a supposed centrist and win some votes from CBC viewers and listeners.

There's one other benefit: Harper would have a high-profile Newfoundlander who could serve as his attack dog against Premier Danny Williams.

Harper could also rest assured that this newest senator from Newfoundland and Labrador wouldn't create any problems for the Alberta oil and gas industry.

Of course, Murphy hasn't always been so fond of the Senate. Last August, he described it in a Globe and Mail column as "the ultimate patronage ATM", adding that "it extorts subservience and sycophancy from those appointed to it."

"It does not have second thoughts," Murphy declared. "A second thought would kill it."

But the public and the media have short memories. No doubt, all the other media hacks who've been appointed to the Senate have uttered their own criticisms of the upper chamber in the past, and it didn't stop prime ministers from presenting them with the ultimate retirement gift.

Besides, with Canwest Publishing going into bankruptcy protection, Murphy can't count on a great deal of job security as a National Post newspaper columnist.

Comment (62)

Comments

Gazza

Sat, 2010-01-09 04:26

Charlie.

Rex Murphy is very informed about climate change. It is the main stream media that is yet to do proper investigative reporting on this sordid topic. I assume the G&M could not handle the reality, having drunk Al Gore coolaid along with most of the other media outlets. It's hard to climb down from such a position once you have taken it. But this year will show people like Rex to be correct in their skepticism of the "science".

Meme Mine
Sat, 2010-01-09 04:51	Newspaper editors and David Nutzuki will be charged by the Canadian Courts for their failed attempt to lead us to a false WMD like war against a false enemy of climate variation, er change. Lockem UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cassandra22
Sat, 2010-01-09 10:36	Just what the NP needs, another nitwit climate change denier - and one who thinks that a thesaurus is a good substitute for an intellect at that! Any wonder why the paper has always lost money?

Ensign Deadmeat

Sat, 2010-01-09 11:21

It's a sad day when climate skepticism is labeled "denial". Murphy is an intellectual giant compared to the mediocrities who are unable to read a Nature paper without a tutor and translator. The spoon-fed nature of most science writing is a disgrace. Without tackling climate change head on Dan Gardner wrote tellingly why we can't trust advocacy based press and the advocates who treat them like muppets.

JohnD
Sat, 2010-01-09 11:29	Climate-change deniers need to read the actual science, not the spewings of their ideological sources.

MT
Sat, 2010-01-09 11:35	Nice start, now if only the CBC would toss the tosser all will be well.

John W.
Sat, 2010-01-09 11:40	Agree completely. How cab a major national newspaper continue with a columnist who simply picks the easiest most vulnerable target of the weak and then piles on with the most grossly affected writing style in Canadian journalism. Devoid of any original insights week after week.

John Curtis
Sat, 2010-01-09 14:13	As a Newfoundlander I would love to see Rex Murphy represent us as a Senator...beats the hell out of Fabian Manning.

Onager

Sat, 2010-01-09 14:25

I lost a lot of respect for Rex Murphy when I heard him mope on about how the big "email scandal" supposedly canceled out the life's work of thousands of scientists all over the world.

He alleged that, according to these emails, somebody had somehow deleted forever a huge climate dataset, as if all the world's climate data was entrusted to one person's USB memory stick. It shocked me that he could be so obtuse as to believe that, or he could believe that his audience would believe that.

I defer to him on English literature and arcane lexicography, but after this shining moment, I'll never think of him as any kind of scientist or eminent thinker beyond his narrow purview.

CbC un-fan
Sat, 2010-01-09 14:32	No longer shall I pinch my nostrils and prey no one sees me purchasing a copy of the Globe and Fail. Now I get to enjoy Rex at my doorstep!

Lemmingman

Sat, 2010-01-09 16:29

Charlie:

You are missing the point. Maybe it's under your hat.....
Science IS skepticism. Frightening children is not. Maybe you should try and find some honest work. Picking fruit in Washington state perhaps? You could start a trend.... Kanada could use a 15 degree increase in average temperature. The universe is quite chilly. Let me introduce you to the term "entropy". All your friends wishing for the same thing only works for Peter Pan. I'll burn 150 gallons of diesel in your honor today...... hope it gives you nightmares.

Ellie in T.O.
Sat, 2010-01-09 16:53	All Murphy is saying is that pure science and political activism need to be kept apart -- a position any sane person should endorse. The fact that this is evidently regarded as equivalent to heresy -- that it can even cost you your job -- is what's truly alarming here.

C Ralph
Sat, 2010-01-09 18:22	Oh boy. Can someone help us get rid of David Warren from the Ottawa Citizen???

roger sterling
Sat, 2010-01-09 20:10	Oh goody for the National Post. Rex can be "Climate Change Denial for Wordy pedants", kind of like a better-spoken version of Lorne Gunter. Alos, I wonder how many more columns on the coalition he has left in him, it seemed an endless supply there for a while.

Jeff The Thinker

Sat, 2010-01-09 20:43

Advice Please! A friend of mine seems to be a climate denialist and I am trying to convert him. He says that it is unlikely that CO2 exerts a net positive feedback effect with water to amplify an initial logarithmically diminishing CO2 effect. He also stated that although models therefore predict an increasing CO2 driven atmospheric water vapour content, observations show just the opposite. He then stated that using the Ice Core to demonstrate such a positive relationship when most of the CO2 rise occurred on average 800 years after the initial solar driven warming seemed misplaced as the Solar effect demonstrated that it was strong enough to penetrate through a much larger Ice Albedo effect of much more glaciated planet. The elevated CO2 could therefore serve to raise the temperature by a degree or so but only strong enough to slow the decline into a glacial period. He also said that it is likely that a pent up CO2 effect held back by a offsetting Aerosol effect of the 60’s and 70’s is probably exaggerated and that the lowering temperatures of the 50-70’s the subsequent 25 year rise and the current stasis could just as easily be the standard ebb and flow of ocean oscillations which the Met office stubbornly refuse to understand. After all that he still agrees that a CO2 warming of around 1 degree might occur but most of the weather related and flooding catastrophes are likely exaggerated. He even thinks a small Carbon Tax would not be a bad thing. I tried reading Real Climate and Climate Progress to plagiarize a rebuttal but can’t really find anything terribly convincing that his stance is definitively wrong. I am going to rummage through his garbage tonight to see if I can find some Pay stubs from Big Oil.

Kylie
Sat, 2010-01-09 21:02	Rex Murphy is "of the devil"

jm
Sat, 2010-01-09 22:54	FINALLY! Some integrity comes back to Canada's only respectable national paper. An appointment of Rex to Canada's Senate will be the icing on the cake for this embarrassment and despicable excuse of a minority government.

Judy Cross

Sat, 2010-01-09 23:53

I stopped listening to CBC because its function as a no longer subtle purveyor of propaganda, is now glaringly obvious. I seldom read much in the Straight anymore for the same reason. It is all very disappointing.

"the carbon dioxide level some 80 million years ago — back when our mammalian ancestors were evolving — was at least 1,000 parts per million. In fact, that is the concentration of carbon dioxide you regularly breathe if you work in a new energy-efficient office building, for that is the level established by the engineering group that sets standards for heating and ventilation systems.

So not only is carbon dioxide plainly not poisonous, but changes in carbon dioxide levels don’t necessarily mirror human activity. Nor does atmospheric carbon dioxide necessarily warm the earth: Ice-cap evidence shows that over the past several hundred thousand years, carbon dioxide levels have risen after a rise in temperature, not the other way around. "
http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:Vf-Um3lqEQ0J:network.nationalpost.co...

John Catley
Sun, 2010-01-10 04:12	Remember Fahrenheit 451? They burned books to hide the truth from the people. If silencing someone with a different viewpoint is good, what happens when someone disagrees with you? Your world does not look too enticing to me Charlie Smith.

Richard Wakefield
Sun, 2010-01-10 07:56	Charlie Smith, there is nothing happening in the climate today that is beyond normal variation of cycles of 1000, 10,000 and 100,000+ years. Nothing, nodda, zippo. Go ahead and check it out yourself. www.co2science.org www.wattsupwiththat.com AGW is the biggest scam in human history, and the people making huge profits from AGW are using the True Believers, like you, as pawns.

open-minded
Sun, 2010-01-10 09:16	Charlie is fortunate that the Straight is open-minded enough to keep him on, despite his ill-informed and irrational rants on behalf of the True Believers. He's sounding more and more like the Desmogblog crowd.

Kevin

Sun, 2010-01-10 10:13

To understand the black agenda behind the green movement:
http://www.green-agenda.com/
"The common enemy of humanity is man. In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself."
- Club of Rome,
premier environmental think-tank,
consultants to the United Nations

bob123

Sun, 2010-01-10 10:27

Dudes and Dudedess's,

Facts : Temperature Rising and Ice Melting = more water in the ocean = rising sea level = bad for cities a lot of people live :(

CO2 mixed in water turns into Carbonic Acid = bad for Ocean = kills everything = we all die.

Earth is a little ball floating in space don't use/destroy it up before you find another home :)

Big Government loves to bail out Big Corporations = Bad for everyone.

Climate Change Deniers sound a lot like the Tobacco and Oil Industry. No problem trust us all is good nothing can go wrong = BS.

Bored
Sun, 2010-01-10 11:18	Gazza=moron

Morty

Sun, 2010-01-10 12:33

I don't know how you do it, Charlie, but you certainly seem to bring out the Conservatives in the comments section. I really don't expect this level of ignorance from Straight readers, so I can only assume someone gave them marching orders.

The evidence for anthropogenic climate change is clear and has been for decades. That's why it's accepted as fact by the scientific community. The only reason there's still a debate in the popular press is money, and it's the deniers who stand to profit from it. That they can convince a few so-called "skeptics" to blindly follow their lead is a bonus.

ge123

Sun, 2010-01-10 13:17

Terms such as denier / alarmist / skeptic / believer, these are religious and political terms. The scientific terms are opponent and proponent of the theory of man made global warming.

For most of the past million years the earth has been locked in ice. For very short periods, lasting about 10 thousand years the earth has warmed up briefly. We are fortunate enough to be living in one of those periods.

Most of us haven't been alive long enough to realize that the climate changes in cycles of about 30 years. So, when we see things warming we make the mistake of thinking it will keep warming forever. Sort of like thinking the warming that occurs during the summer will continue right through the fall and winter.

40 years ago we were all woried about the next ice age, as temperatures were cooling. Then for 30 years things warmed up and we worried out the earth overheating. Now for the past 10 years the warming has stopped, and we are likely to have 20 more years of cooling. Already scientists are again talking about the coming ice age.

There has never been a single theory in science that hasn't been modified over time as new information came to light. Global warming will be no different. The climate is much more complicated than any of us imagine, and likely more complicated than any of us can imagine.

miguel
Sun, 2010-01-10 14:39	Climate change is a fact; that's what this planet is all about. What is at doubt is whether human agency played a part in triggering the present changes. Personally I think our activities have some effect but the question is pretty moot at this point. Miguel

chip

Sun, 2010-01-10 16:23

"The evidence for anthropogenic climate change is clear and has been for decades. That's why it's accepted as fact by the scientific community."

Ok, please link to the evidence of the human signal for the warming between the 1970s and the late 1990s. You won't find it because it still resides in computer models rather than empirical data.

And it is not accepted as fact by the 'scientific community.' Well respected leaders in their fields like Freeman Dyson, Richard Lindzen and William Gray don't accept it. And just this week IPCC member and leading German ocean modeler Mojib Latif released a paper that predicts a further 20 to 30 years of cooling.

I say 'further' because the planet has cooled for 9 years already, Antarctic ice is at a 30 year record and Arctic ice is up 26% since 2007, none of which were predicted in the vaunted computer models issued by the IPCC.

Bruce
Sun, 2010-01-10 18:18	I"d love to see Rex leave Cross Country Check-Up on CBC too. He spends way too much time talking for a call-in show. The host should be asking short questions and shutting up, but Rex likes to use that show for another opinion platform.

Morty

Sun, 2010-01-10 18:57

"Ok, please link to the evidence of the human signal for the warming between the 1970s and the late 1990s. You won't find it because it still resides in computer models rather than empirical data."

We have temperature records. We have measured atmospheric CO2 levels. That's pretty empirical. But you want links? Fine. Try this as a starting point:

http://www.nature.com/climate/index.html

Read every article there — not just the op/ed pieces, but the journal publications and the articles cited in those publications. Once you've done that, try arguing there's no evidence.

Morgan
Sun, 2010-01-10 19:45	The so-called climate scientists lied. The so-called climate scientists lied. The so-called climate scientists lied. The so-called climate scientists lied. The so-called climate scientists lied. The so-called climate-scientists lied. The so-called climate scientists lied. The so-called climate scientists lied. The so-called climate scientists lied. The...

Bruce Too
Sun, 2010-01-10 20:15	I used to read 2 newpapers a day. 3 on Saturday. Now I read online. I never click on the ads. Great job Charlie. Keep campaining for the death of newspapers with articles like this one. Buh Bye.

Harpo
Sun, 2010-01-10 22:24	Chalie Smith Rex is better informed than you are. How's the weather up north anyway? Is the Globe Warm enough for you???? What a joke. The number ignorant clowns who believe this CO2 rubbish. Think about this people... Why is the sky blue? When you understand the physics of the situation well enough to answer that question you will understand why CO2 is irrelevant to climate change.

Arnie M.

Sun, 2010-01-10 23:51

Charlie , why is it that every time evidence is presented that man made global warming may not in fact be happening , the Liberal left becomes very unhappy?? To me it is good news. Any explanation??

You seem to be happy that Canwest is having financial difficulty , did you know that your beloved CBC has been bankrupt for years and only survives because of the billion dollars a year they get from forced taxation on those of us who do not watch it?? How would you feel if the government gave a billion a year to The National Post?? It is the same thing Charles. Think about it.

Don't like what Harper is doing with the senate?? Now do you understand why the Reform - Alliance - Conservatives have been calling for senate reform for years??

You mentioned Alberta Oil Industry. Did you know that The Alberta Tar Sands leached oil tar into the lakes and rivers and streams for thousands of years until man started digging it up and removing it for fuel?? Did you know the CBC photo shopped the Tar sands pictures to make the smoke dirty brown?? Did you know that it is mostly white steam coming from the smokestacks from evaporating water(ie:it is distilled water) ??? Did you know the heat is produced by clean burning natural gas?? Did you know Ontario coal fired power plants are Canada's greatest polluters .... not Alberta tar sands???

If 40% of Canadians are conservative why is it that the CBC is staffed 99% Leftists with Rex being the only exception???

Anyone still promoting man made global warming is riding a dead horse. The final nail in the coffin was when Grandma Copenhagen was unplugged from life support. Most of the supporters have run for the hills. They know they have been caught promoting a fallacy and saw they were being exposed. We must be careful who we believe nowadays. Truth always surfaces. Look for it always.

Best regards and thank you from Manitoba.

Arnie M.

Mon, 2010-01-11 00:32

Polar Bear count..... 1945 = 5,000
Polar Bear count .... 1997 = 16,000
Polar Bear count .... 2008 = 25,000

I mentioned these numbers to Al Gore when he spoke at the Regina Sask. university last year. His face turned red and his exact reply was "Are you trying to say that the Polar Bear is not an endangered specis " .

I was allowed one more question (to my surprise) and I asked ...... "Mr. Gore .... did you know that the 43,640 gallons (199,158 L) of JP4 jet fuel being put in your 747 at the Regina airport comes from the Alberta Tar Sands ?"

They cut the mike and asked for only questions pertaining to global warming.

Be careful who you believe. Do not be fooled. Best regards.

Greetings from Manitoba , the Polar Bear Capitol of the world

RodSmelser
Mon, 2010-01-11 09:04	Rex Murphy's rants on climate change and East Anglia inevitably betray a pre-occupation with religion. He sees the scientific establishment as comparable to the Medieval Church leaders persecuting Galileo. He forgets that Galileo's research was not funded by Shell. Rod Smelser

memento58
Mon, 2010-01-11 10:12	Agree completely. How cab a major national newspaper continue with a columnist who simply picks the easiest most vulnerable target of the weak and then piles on with the most grossly affected writing style in Canadian journalism. Devoid of any original insights week after week.

Goldorak

Mon, 2010-01-11 12:28

Democracy, plurality of opinion in action is always a pleasure to witness .
For the record:
It is symptomatic the Globe and Mail could let only an opinion columnist voice the doubts and scientific uncertainties about the climate change issue. Never this newspaper reported any peer review studies that contradicted or moderated the walarmism. No scientific investigation presenting researchers affected by the peer review rigging of Jones and Mann was offered: the consequence of Climategate can be read and developed elsewhere but not in the Gleube -and only zealots think there are none-. Every single time this newspaper reported and reports only the most alarmist stuff, in the most alarmist way through activists pretending to be journalists. Factual errors abound in most of these activist articles and the editorial board of the G&M is not interested in correcting them: for instance -The so called claim that Robins had never been seen in the arctic before and thus have no inuit name has been amply debunked and a 1913 book writes about their presence in the arctic- before global warming...

Clearly the Globe and its masters, the richest family in Canada -those even the canadian left seems to love- have green interests and investments to defend and promote in order to make Andrew lloyd Weaver modeler turned climatologist, Thomas Homer Dixon economist and profiting friends, Simpson-Jaccard i.e. the submarines of the Suzuki Foundation and PR Hoggan desmogblog racist and delationist website, be the backbone of their green campaign. During the Yamal affair that exposed the biased dendro work of Briffa, IPCC author, the Canadian Press couldn't even interview the AR4 reviewer and Hockey Stick slayer Steve McIntyre in Toronto! Yet all those carbon footprint maniac media went all to Copenhagen to "cover" the most org*iac UN conference ever...

So Murphy's voice is silenced and Charlie celebrates? A victory for free speech ecototalitarian style...

boris

Mon, 2010-01-11 13:12

For the most part, this sounds like a childish platform for ad hominem remarks from both sides of the issue.

For the warmistas, debate Murphy's position, not his character or looks. I can't believe that apparently intelligent people religiously align with the "science-is-settled" side, but it is probably because they haven't taken the opportunity to become encumbered with knowledge about divergent interpretations of the evidence at hand. There is nothing wrong with being skeptical. Try it - you might learn something.

glen p robbins

Mon, 2010-01-11 16:55

Derivatives and other money making efforts of the lazy and entitled have proven a complete waste and marginilized the market as the elixer of all that ails ya. No matter any persons opinion of the to and fro of International environmental -- political debate--I believe that with the correct brainpans in place in Victoria--we can produce billions of new wealth to this province as an economic epicenter of environmental economic action. This, and not Rex Murphy (whose CBC political rippings I seek out--and who is a very good writer imo), and not the Senate---no no---keep your eye on the money which will raise the environment-- the new topic of economic discussion--and I promise you--this --- without any doubt--will truly be the next great economic revival not only in the World but right here in our beloved province---this is an opportunity to be great---the rest is just wearing a bib and arguing.

boris

Mon, 2010-01-11 19:06

Hey Rod,

Seems like both sides have gotten funding from "Big Oil", including past proponents of global warming; see:

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/04/climategate-cru-looks-to-big-oil-f...

But, who cares about who funds what? What matters is the veracity of factoids pushed along by each side of the debate.

You mention religion. Well, there has been a lot of faith-based preaching about how settled the science is. In fact, it is starting to look like the weight of evidence is favoring cooling over the past decade. Read broadly and decide for yourself.

DonA123

Tue, 2010-01-12 04:28

We need more skeptics on climate change. Not because it isn't happening but because it is happening everywhere in the solar system. It is absurd to claim our paltry 0.24% contribution to atmospheric carbon is the reason. Good science is skeptical but where climate change is concerned there is very little good science. Correlation and selective evidence makes for great doomsday theories but it is piss poor science. Inductive reasoning is always a guess at best but where climate models are concerned and their inability to predict anything inductive reasoning is nothing but blind guesses.

Mike McFae
Tue, 2010-01-12 14:46	Mr. Smith, Rex Murphy isn't even on the radar screen for appointment. Firstly , he isn't a Conservative. Secondly haven't you ever heard of Loyola Hearn or Loyola Sullivan , two lifelong party members. Good god man, the world does not revolve around global warming positions.

Mike McFae
Tue, 2010-01-12 15:00	A large segment of the population truly cares about all aspects of our environment ( pollution , etc ) but get really annoyed when a small segment of the population screams that the end is near and those who deny the impending apocolypse don't love their children. The use of AGW to make money ( consultants, Gore , etc ) also upsets many people.

StevieY
Tue, 2010-01-12 18:44	Classic response to dissent! Why not just copy editorials from other newspapers if G&M/Nat'l Post have nothing new to add?

Margaret
Wed, 2010-01-13 21:09	THANK GOD. I can't stand Murphy - he's pretentious, and he's partisan. He's been around far too long and he isn't nearly as witty as he thinks he is. He's been left alone with a thesaurus for far too long. And he's trying for a Senate seat.

Bruce
Mon, 2010-01-18 14:58	Well, I've always considered the Glob & Snail to be a waste of good trees and electrons. Just heard this from a friend of my wife's. If he believes in Global Warming, he's out to lunch anyway. For the real dirt on global warming, read this: http://www.kusi.com/home/78477082.html?video=pop&t=a

Ian Lidster
Mon, 2010-01-18 15:46	The G&M's loss and NP's gain. I thought the G&M had grown up a bit and had chosen to be eclectic in it's column pages. Vain hope, I guess. Back to being a bastion for the lefties.

Nevsky
Mon, 2010-01-18 22:15	I've never cared much for the Globe and Mail. Now I care even less. Rex Murphy, Margaret Wente and Christie Blatchford were its only decent columnists. Now there are only two. When will they move over to the Canada's best national paper? If content and brain stimulation is what you want, the National Post is the country's best paper.

blarch
Thu, 2010-01-21 23:04	I stopped reading the Post the same year it started, when a science reporter actually explained that a study concluded the exact opposite of what was actually discovered. Good going, stupids, Murphy is your kind of scientist.

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