Anatomy of a Botched Ambush: ABC Fails to Score Global Warming Point on Inhofe

“It’s so hot outside, you could fry an egg …” or something like that.

Perhaps ABC News should have rehearsed their attempted dramatic presentation to promote global warming alarmism before going forward. But instead, they have egg on their face after failing to fry an egg in the heat, that is.

According to a spokesman for Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., a producer for ABC News senior congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl requested an interview about pending climate legislation. However, the producer insisted it be conducted outside instead of in the U.S. Capitol or in any of the surrounding Senate office buildings. Washington, D.C. temperatures have been in excess of 95 degrees [1]. An abbreviated clip of the interview aired on ABCNews.com’s “Topline” on July 23.

“Speaking of which, you all may have remember Sen. Jim Inhofe during the big snowstorm back in Washington in February, building that igloo – or actually it was his kids that built the igloo and they put a sign on that said ‘Al Gore’s home: Honk if you like global warming,’” Karl said. “Back then Sen. Inhofe was ridiculing those that were concerned about global warming because it was cold in Washington and throughout the Eastern Seaboard. Well, we went to talk to him about the situation now that we are in the middle of a heat wave.”

But the “Topline” clipped showed only a brief portion of the interview including Inhofe’s explanation that the globe is in the middle of a cold spell [2], and many think it will get colder [3].

“I don’t think anyone disagrees with the fact that we actually are in the middle of a cold period, that started about nine years ago,” Inhofe explained.

Later, ABCNews.com posted the entire video [4], including Karl’s failed attempt to fry the egg and posted a very accusatory article [5] about the Oklahoma senator “talking” global cooling in the midst of the heat wave.

Karl’s effort to use the current heat along the East Coast is something the left was up in arms about earlier this year when snow covered much of the country, when it was used to mock the theory of manmade global warming. Back in February, The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank advised global warming alarmists [6] against using this tactic to make their case.

“Still, there's some rough justice in the conservatives' cheap shots. In Washington's blizzards, the greens were hoist by their own petard,” Milbank wrote. “For years, climate-change activists have argued by anecdote to make their case. Gore, in his famous slide shows, ties human-caused global warming to increasing hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, drought and the spread of mosquitoes, pine beetles and disease. It's not that Gore is wrong about these things. The problem is that his storm stories have conditioned people to expect an endless worldwide heat wave, when in fact the changes so far are subtle.”

Looks like Jon Karl and ABC News didn’t get the memo.