Marc Morano

Marc Morano (born 1968) is a conservative American publisher. He has worked on different assignments in the Washington political scene, but is best known as founder of the website Climate Depot, a project of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow.[1]

Career

Morano was born in Washington, D.C. and raised in McLean, Virginia. He has a bachelor's degree from George Mason University in political science.[2]

He began his career working for Rush Limbaugh from 1992 to 1996, during which time he was known as "Limbaugh's man in Washington".[1] After 1996, he began working for Cybercast News Service, where he was the first to publish the accusations from Swift-Boat veterans that John Kerry had allegedly exaggerated his military service record.[3] He also worked for the Family Research Council, which hired him in 1996 to report on an AIDS fundraising dance party held in the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C. Morano's eyewitness account of the party alleged that numerous illegal activities, such as drug use and performance of fellatio on the dance floor, had taken place there. This led to California Republican Bob Dornan criticizing Steve Gunderson for allowing the brunch held the day after the dance party to take place in the Rayburn House Office Building. Gunderson replied that Morano and Dornan had deliberately misrepresented the events that happened at the party, and that security did not notice any illegal activities there.[4]

Beginning in June 2006, Morano served as the director of communications of Senator Jim Inhofe. He was also communications director for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee under the Bush administration. In 2007, Morano produced a minority report entitled "Over 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007", which he expanded a year later to "over 700 scientists" who, he claimed, believed that global warming was not caused by human activity.[5]

Upon its debut in April 2009, Morano became the executive editor of Climate Depot. In November 2009, Morano was one of the first to break the Climatic Research Unit email controversy story after being contacted by Anthony Watts. The story was subsequently picked up by James Delingpole.[1]

EPW website

As communications director for the "Senate Environment and Public Works Committee", Morano oversaw the EPW website, which pioneered the use of the Internet to disseminate information about the activities of Congressional committees to the public. Among the innovations of the website were a user-friendly interface with quick access to audio and video clips of speeches and hearings, a daily EPW Press Blog on the hot-button issues of the day, live blogging of the State of the Union Address, a YouTube channel, podcasts, and a Gore countdown button to track the number of days passed since the former Vice President had refused to pledge to limit his energy use to that of the average American.[6] The Press Blog also served as a "watchdog on news media excesses", disputing environmental reporting by CBS News, the Associated Press, Newsweek, ABC News, and CNN.[6]

Media appearances

On 4 December 2012, Morano debated Bill Nye (TV's "the Science Guy") on global warming on CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight.[7] On January 23, 2013, Morano debated Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, again on Piers Morgan Tonight.[8]

Controversies

The list presented by Morano in his minority 2007-2008 report has been criticized by Joseph J. Romm for including a significant number of people who are not sufficiently well-qualified to assess climate science, such as author Ray Kurzweil and a number of television meteorologists, such as Steve Baskerville, as well as scientists whose expertise is in geomagnetism.[9]

Michael E. Mann has called Morano a "hired assassin" who "spreads malicious lies about scientists."[10] At the end of 2012, Media Matters for America, named Morano the "Climate Change Misinformer of the Year."[11] The German magazine Zeit has described him as a "PR manager" and "climate warrior", and called his career "a lesson in the art of lying". [12]

Mail address controversy

Morano has been criticized for publishing the email addresses of climate scientists on Climate Depot, often triggering a deluge of vitriolic emails. In March 2012, Morano posted an article and the email address of sociology professor Kari Norgaard, who had presented a paper on why it is difficult for societies to take action to respond to climate change. This story was later picked up by Rush Limbaugh, after which Norgaard received many vicious and threatening emails, including one that said, "When people like you attempt to rape honest people with integrity we will come for you, with our firearms in hand. ... You will reap violence for the violence you sow."[13] Morano repeated this action again in 2013, when he posted the email address of Shaun Marcott in response to Marcott having published a temperature reconstruction which resembled the hockey stick graph.

Morano concedes that emails targeting climate scientists can be nasty in tone, but defends the practice of posting their addresses by noting that he himself has received hate mail. He says that his goal is to "let the professors hear from the public" and that receiving nasty emails is "part of the process."[13]

Funding

Climate Depot.com, run by Morano, is funded by Richard Mellon Scaife,[1] known for his financial support of conservative public policy organizations. CFACT's tax filings list Morano as the most highly paid member of the organisation.[14]

Awards

Morano's EPW website won a Golden Mouse Award in 2007 for improving communications between Members of Congress and their constituents.[15] In February 2010, Accuracy in Media awarded Morano their annual Reed Irvine Award alongside Andrew Breitbart,[16] and in July 2010, Doctors for Disaster Preparedness announced it would award Morano that year's Petr Beckmann Award.[17]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Richardson, John H. (March 30, 2010). "This Man Wants to Convince You Global Warming Is a Hoax". Esquire. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
  2. ↑ Friedman, Lisa (2008). The Almanac of the Unelected: Staff of the U.S. Congress 2008. Bernan Press. p. 606.
  3. ↑ Kaufman, Leslie (9 April 2009). "Dissenter on Warming Expands His Campaign". New York Times. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
  4. ↑ Graham, Trey (1996). "Party Out of Bounds". The Advocate (710): 28.
  5. ↑ Morano, Marc (December 11, 2008). "U. S. Senate Minority Report: More Than 700 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims". Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Dempsey, Matthew (January 14, 2008). "Inhofe EPW Website Wins Coveted Gold Mouse Award". The Inhofe EPW Press Blog. Archived from the original on 2008-03-18.
  7. ↑ Piers Morgan (December 4, 2012). "Bill Nye vs Marc Morano on Global Warming". CNN. Retrieved April 18, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Does climate change exist?". CNN. 23 January 2013. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  9. ↑ Romm, Joseph J. (December 22, 2007). "NYT’s Revkin gives Inhofe a pass". Grist. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
  10. ↑ Marshall, George (2014). Don't Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 151.
  11. ↑ Fitzsimmons, Jill; Theel, Shauna (December 27, 2012). "Climate Change Misinformer Of The Year: Marc Morano". Media Matters for America. Retrieved September 14, 2013.
  12. ↑ Blasberg, Anita; Kohlenberg, Kerstin (28 November 2012). "Die Klimakrieger, Wie von der Industrie bezahlte PR-Manager der Welt seit Jahren einreden, die Erderwärmung finde nicht statt. Chronologie einer organisierten Lüge". Die Zeit (48). Die Geschichte des PR-Managers Marc Morano ist die Geschichte einer geplanten Verwirrung. Ein Lehrstück über die Kunst des Lügens.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Ogburn, Stephanie Paige (January 22, 2014). "Scientist Targets of Climate Change Hate Mail Rally for Support". Scientific American. Retrieved March 2, 2014.
  14. ↑ Goldenberg, Suzanne (February 14, 2013). "How Donors Trust distributed millions to anti-climate groups". The Guardian. Retrieved April 21, 2014.
  15. ↑ Morano, Marc (April 6, 2009). "Climate Depot Aims To Redefine Global Warming Reporting". Climate Depot. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
  16. ↑ "Andrew Breitbart, Marc Morano to Receive Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Awards". Accuracy in Media. 16 February 2010. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
  17. ↑ Hickman, Leo (July 13, 2010). "Climate sceptic Morano's 'courage' award is a vicious irony". The Guardian. Retrieved March 10, 2014.

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