Investigation report no. BI-185
SummaryLicensee / Southern Cross Communications Pty Limited
Station / Southern Cross Ten
Type of service / Commercial television
Name of program / The Bolt Report
Date of broadcast / 8 November 2015
Relevant code / Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice 2010
Date finalised / 8 July 2016
Decision / No breachof clause 4.3.1 [accuracy]
Background
In April 2016, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (the ACMA) commenced an investigation under section 170 of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (the BSA) into a segment onThe Bolt Reportbroadcast on Southern Cross Ten by Southern Cross Communications Pty Limited (the licensee) on 8 November 2015.
The ACMA received a complaint alleging that a statement about the interpretation of a graph broadcast during a segment on global warming was inaccurate and misleading.
The ACMA has investigated the licensee’s compliance against clause 4.3.1 of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice 2010 (the Code).
The program
The Bolt Reportwas a current affairs program, hosted by Mr Andrew Bolt, broadcast on Ten and Southern Cross Ten on Sundays at 10.00 am until late2015. It is currently broadcast on Sky News.
A transcript of the segment is at Attachment A.
Assessmentand submissions
When assessing content, the ACMA considers the meaning conveyed by the material, including the natural, ordinary meaning of the language, context, tenor, tone, images and any inferences that may be drawn. This is assessed according to the understanding of an ‘ordinary reasonable’ listener or viewer.
Australian courts have considered an ‘ordinary reasonable’ listener or viewer to be:
A person of fair average intelligence, who is neither perverse, nor morbid or suspicious of mind, nor avid for scandal. That person does not live in an ivory tower, but can and does read between the lines in the light of that person’s general knowledge and experience of worldly affairs.[1]
Once the ACMA has ascertained the meaning of the material that was broadcast, it then assesses compliance with the Code
The investigation takes into account the complaint (at Attachment B) and submissions from the licensee (at Attachment C). Other sources are identified below.
Relevant Code provision
News and Current Affairs Programs
4.3In broadcasting news and current affairs programs, licensees:
4.3.1must present factual material accurately and represent viewpoints fairly, having regard to the circumstances at the time of preparing and broadcasting the program;
4.3.1.1An assessment of whether the factual material is accurate is to be determined in the context of the segment in its entirety.
Finding
The licenseedid not breachclause 4.3.1 of the Code.
Reasons
The accuracy requirements under clause 4.3.1 of the Code apply to factual material. In assessing compliance with clause 4.3.1, the ACMA asks:
What does the material convey to the ordinary reasonable viewer?
Was the material factual in character?
If so, was the (factual) material accurate?[2]
The considerations the ACMA generally uses in assessing whether broadcast material is factual in character are set out at Attachment D.
The complaintto the licensee was:
I would call into question the graph used by Mr Andrew Bolt on his program "The Bolt Report" aired on 8 Nov 2015.
It is a small section of a much larger graph that clearly shows climate change is increasing as predicted by science, taking small sections of larger graphs is neither accurate nor scientific.
It is a way to manipulate data to give a false impression of the overall problem.
The licensee submitted:
Mr Andrew Bolt provides that his comments correlate to the graph provided, noting […] “as I keep showing you, there has been no real warming of the atmosphere for some 18 years now” […]. He does not assert that there has never been warming of the earth’s atmosphere and further indicates, in direct correlation to the graph, the description that there has been no significant change as demonstrated by the graph.
[…]
As per his blog, published 11 December 2015, Mr Bolt provides further opinion to claims his comments are inaccurate. A larger version of the RSS graph used during his program supports his original comments that there has not been a significant change in the last 17-18 years.
What does the material convey to the ordinary reasonable viewer?
In the segment,Mr Bolt claimed that most Australians do not believe in global warming. He referred to a Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) survey in support of this claim and concluded:
But no wonder the scaremongers are no longer believed.As I keep showing you, there has been no real warming of the atmosphere for around 18 years now […]
This statement was accompanied by a graph titled ‘warming pause’, which is the subject of the complaint.
The statementand graph would have conveyed to the ordinary reasonable viewer thatthere has been a pause in global warming of the atmosphere over the last 18 years.
Was the material factual in character?
The accuracy requirements in the Code only apply to statements of fact and do not apply to statements of opinion. The statement that ‘there has been no real warming of the atmosphere for around 18 years’ was specific, unequivocal and capable of independent verification. Mr Bolt’s concluding statement about choosing ‘facts over fear’ further indicated that the statement was an assertion of fact.
The statement was accompanied by a full screen image of a graph. The words ‘as I keep showing you’ would have suggestedthat the graph was presented as evidencein support of the factual assertion about the pause.
The graph was titled ‘warming pause’:
The graph was onscreen for approximately three seconds. The prominent title was ‘warming pause’ and smaller text in the right corner read ‘Source: Remote Sensing System’. The horizontal axis showed the years 1997 and 2015. The vertical axis was marked with three numbers: -0.5, 0 and 0.5.
The graph was presented as evidence of an assertion that there has been a ‘warming pause’ over the last 18 years.
If so, was the (factual) material accurate?
There has been scientific observation by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)in 2013[3], and others including Remote Sensing Systems[4], of a warming ‘hiatus’ or ‘pause’ in the rate of rise in global mean and average surface air temperatures. However, broader indicators provide evidence that climate change is occurring.[5]
The ACMA considers that Mr Bolt used the term ‘warming of the atmosphere’ in a general, non-scientific sense, and that it is sufficiently broad in meaning to include surface air temperatures, which are a measure of the heat present in the atmospheric layer immediately above the land and surface of the ocean.
Despite some contestability about this issue[6], Mr Bolt’s specific comment about there being no real warming of the atmosphere over the last 18 years is consistent with the surface air temperature records for this period referred to in the 2013 IPCC report and by Remote Sensing Systems.
Clause 4.3.1.1 of the Code provides that an assessment of whether factual material is accurate is to be determined in the context of the segment in its entirety. The ACMA has therefore considered whether other comments made in the segmentaffected the accuracy of the relevant content. Such comments included Mr Bolt’s statements about Australians not believing that climate change is occurring and his references to the views of scientists and environmentalists.
Much of Mr Bolt’s language was hyperbolic, such as, ‘great global warming scare campaign’, ‘Australians aren’t stupid’, ‘can’t be fooled for long’, ‘all that propaganda’, ‘scaremongers’, ‘there’s been no Armageddon’and ‘no wonder’. The use of hyperbole indicated that Mr Bolt was giving his subjective personal opinion about the matters being discussedand was not presenting a concluded scientific position about global warming in the segment.
Current affairs programs such as The Bolt Report are not precluded from taking a position on any matter and are not required to be balanced or to include all information about a particular issue.
It was clear from the excerpts of the comments of environmentalists, scientists and political leaders in the segment that Mr Bolt’s opinions were contentious and the evidence provided to support his views was selective. However, of itself, the factual material was accurate.
The ACMA therefore finds that, in the context of the segment in its entirety, Mr Bolt’s statement about there being no real warming of the atmosphere over the last 18 years, and the graph used to support that statement, comply with the code.
Accordingly, the licensee did not breach clause 4.3.1 of the Code.
Attachment A
Transcript of The Bolt Report, broadcast on Southern Cross Ten, on 8 November 2015
Andrew Bolt:Great news this week, although some journalists hid it. The great global warming scare campaign has failed. Australians aren’t that stupid. They can’t be fooled for long and as of now most no longer believe the warming scare that Al Gore unleashed with his film An Inconvenient Truth, in 2006.
Footage from the film, An Inconvenient Truth.
Al Gore:The arctic is experiencing faster melting. If this were to go, sea levels world-wide would go up 20 feet. This is what would happen in Florida, around Shanghai home to 40 million people, the area round Calcutta 60 million, here’s Manhattan, the World Trade Centre Memorial would be underwater. Think of the impact of a couple of hundred thousand refugees, and then imagine 100 million.
Andrew Bolt:The scaremongering that followed was a scandal, pushed by a media that swallowed the most preposterous claims.
Footage of aninterview with Professor Tim Flannery, Environmentalist.
Tim Flannery:Even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems.
Footage of an interview with Mark Lynas, Environmentalist.
Mark Lynas:If temperatures soar by six degrees in less than a century, we’re going to face nothing less than a global wipe-out.
Footage of a report from American ABC news.
Voice over:But this city itself could be dying from the effects of global warming. Imagine a city that could look like this just one generation from now. A near permanent state of drought, a dramatic rise in bush fires, tsunami-like tidal surges, heat related deaths soaring. It’s a doomsday scenario.
Footage of an interview with Professor Mike Archer, UNSW Science Dean.
Mike Archer: Life as usual is not going to be here for much longer.
Andrew Bolt:Politicians should have protected us from this ridiculous scaring of people. Instead they pushed it.
Footage of an interview with Malcolm Turnbull, then Opposition Leader.
Malcolm Turnbull: I will not lead a party that is not as committed to effective action on climate change as I am.
Footage of a speech given by Kevin Rudd, then Prime Minister.
Kevin Rudd:Climate change is the great moral challenge of our generation.
Footage of a television appearance by Julia Gillard, then Prime Minister.
Julia Gillard: I genuinely do believe that climate change is real, it’s going to cause more droughts, more bushfires, more extreme weather events and it’s going to affect the Barrier Reef, it’s going to affect food production.
Andrew Bolt:But even with all that propaganda the alarmists have failed. This week on Melbourne Cup Day the CSIRO quietly snuck out this report on a massive survey last year of 5000 Australians asking what they thought of global warming. The findings are incredible. For the first time in years the Australians who believe humans are heating the world dangerously are outnumbered by Australians who don’t. We have more sceptics now than believers. Here are the figures. Nearly 46% of Australians say they believe humans are mostly to blame for the warming we’ve seen, but they’re outnumbered by the nearly 39% who say the warming is natural plus the 8% who think there’s actually been no warming, at least lately. The sceptics are in the majority particularly when you add those who don’t have an opinion. Even one in five Greens voters are now sceptics, one in five. They say global warming’seither not man made or is not happening. These are huge results. They show the media has failed. Its non-stop message of a manmade global warming doom is no longer believed by most of us. In fact, the media could not be trusted even in reporting this survey. The ABC implied most Australians were still buying the scare.
Graphic of Michael Brissenden, host of AM.
Michael Brissenden: A five year study of Australians’ views on climate change has found 78% believe it is happening.
Andrew Bolt:But no wonder the scaremongers are no longer believed. As I keep showing you, there has been no real warming of the atmosphere for around 18 years now and there have been, if anything, fewer cyclones especially in Australia. Crops have increased world-wide, people live longer, there’s been no Armageddon. Roy Spencer is one of the world’s top climate scientists. He runs one of the main centres measuring the world’s temperature.
Footage of interviews with Dr Roy Spencer, Climatologist.
Roy Spencer: For the last 25 years we’ve been monitoring global temperatures with satellites. We haven’t seen any warming in the last about 18 years.
About half of the warming we’ve seen since the 1950s has been natural rather than man made. What you end up with is that global warming ends up not being nearly the problem that scientists thought it was going to be.
Andrew Bolt:But most of you worked that out for yourselves. You chose facts above fear. Congratulations.
Attachment B
Excerpts from Complaint
Complaint to the licensee dated 12 November 2015:
I would call into question the graph used by Mr Andrew Bolt on his program "The Bolt Report" aired on 8 Nov 2015.
It is a small section of a much larger graph that clearly shows climate change is increasing as predicted by science, taking small sections of larger graphs is neither accurate nor scientific.
It is a way to manipulate data to give a false impression of the overall problem. I would request that you seek good science based evidence to check Mr Bolt's claims that his graph shows a hiatus in climate change and ask him to correct his statements and apologise for what appears to be the deliberate spreading incorrect information.
Complaint to the ACMA dated 18 March 2015:
My complaint was about The Bolt Report ( Andrew Bolt ).
It was with regards The Project episode “Waleed Aly takes on Andrew Bolt over climate change":
A clip from Bolt's program showed the News Corp columnist flashing a graphic he uses frequently on screen to demonstrate there had been "no warming of the earth's atmosphere for around 18 years now".
"Let me nip this in the bud, Andrew Bolt, before you launch into your whole 'but it has stopped warming' line that you've been running for the last few years," Aly said.
"This is Carl Mears, the guy whose graph you keep using. We tracked him down, he has a message for you."
The show then played a clip of Mears, a climate scientist and the vice president for research at Remote Sensing Systems, who contradicted Bolt's position and said the globe had indeed warmed in the preceding decades.
"It's pretty clear that the globe has warmed over the last 18 years," said Mears. "When you do real science you can't just use the data sets that fit your pre-drawn conclusions, but you really need to look at all the data together."
If the scientist who compiled the chart says that Mr Bolt’s interpretation of it is wrong then it is fairly obvious that Mr Bolt’s comments and the information he has given is wrong.
I note that the program has been removed but I feel that both Ch 10 and Mr Bolt should be ordered to issue a retraction and apology for not checking facts and for repeatedly publishing false and misleading information.
Attachment C
Excerpts from licensee’s submissions
Licensee submission to the ACMA dated 3 June 2016:
We have sought a copy of the relevant footage and advice regarding the relevant segment of The Bolt Report from the Ten Network. Ten have advised us that they no longer own the copyright in The Bolt Report and have passed the request on to the current owner, News Corporation. To date, we have not received any information on the program and are therefore unable to provide a comprehensive response to the investigation.
However, given that the graph in question was subsequently re-broadcast as part of a segment on The Project (which we have located on youtube.com.au) we are able to make the following limited comments.
For the reasons submitted below, GLV disagrees with [the complainant’s] view on accuracy, considering Mr Bolt presented his opinion based on material presented during the segment, rather than presenting the material as a statement of fact.