Friday, October 12, 2007

British Judge Rules Al Gore's Film Partisan Political Propaganda

Now that Al Gore has joined Yasser Arafat and Henry Kissinger as a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, this legal judgement may not make a difference. Still, the text of the decision makes for interesting reading.Here's a link to the full text (PDF) of Justice Burton's October 2nd decision in Stuart Dimmock v. the Secretary of State for Education and Skills--the British case challenging school showings of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.

This abstract comes from the Heartland Institute website:
In the matter between Stuart Dimmock, Claimant and Secretary of State for Education and Skills (now Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families), Defendant, British High Court Justice Michael Burton determines former U.S. Vice President Al Gore’s global warming film, An Inconvenient Truth, promotes “partisan political views.”

The case was brought by Stewart Dimmock, a truck driver, member of a local school council, and the parent of children aged 11 and 14. The defendants are British ministers responsible for the government education system, who had ordered nationwide distribution of Al Gore’s film. Dimmock said the film is inappropriate for showing to school-age children because it is politically biased, scientifically inaccurate, and contains “sentimental mush.”

After outlining nearly a dozen serious factual errors in the film, Burton determined it could continue to be shown in schools, but only if accompanied by a teaching package that includes limiting and cautionary “guidance notes” and other films, including a counter-film, “The Great Global Warming Swindle,” produced by Britain’s Channel 4.