Marc Morano

Marc Morano, who has no climate science expertise, runs the anti-climate-science website ClimateDepot.com for the anti-regulation Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, which lists him as Director of Communications.

Background
"Morano was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in McLean, VA. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at George Mason University."

Earlier career - EPW, CNS, Limbaugh, Am. Investigator
Until spring of 2009, Morano served as communications director for the Republicans on the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Morano commenced work with the committee under anti-science Senator James Inhofe, who was majority chairman of the committee until January 2007 and is now minority ranking member. In December 2006 Morano launched a blog on the committee's website that largely promotes the views of climate change skeptics.

Morano was a journalist with Cybercast News Service (CNS), which is owned by the conservative Media Research Center. CNS and Morano were the first source in May 2004 of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth claims against John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election and in January 2006 of similar smears against Vietnam war veteran John Murtha.

Morano was "previously known as Rush Limbaugh's 'Man in Washington,' as reporter and producer for the Rush Limbaugh Television Show, as well as a former correspondent and producer for American Investigator, the nationally syndicated TV newsmagazine."

First generation Swiftboater
"As a reporter for the conservative Cybercast News Service from 2001 until earlier [in 2006], Morano peppered his climate reporting with skeptics' views that have surfaced as themes in [James] Inhofe's recent press attacks. Earlier this year, for example, Morano wrote about NASA scientist James Hansen's contributions to the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. John Kerry (Mass.). ...

"Morano, who worked as a producer in the mid-90s for radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, was also among the first reporters to write about the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign scrutinizing Kerry's Vietnam War record. And earlier this year, Morano penned an article questioning the Purple Heart medals of Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), a leading critic of Bush's Iraq policy."

John Kerry
On May 3, 2004, Morano penned the CNS article "Kerry 'Unfit to be Commander-in-Chief,' Say Former Military Colleagues". See Swift Boat Veterans for Truth article for details.

John Murtha
It was also Morano, with CNS's Randy Hall, who penned the January 2006, articles for CNSNews.com casting aspersions on Rep. John Murtha's Vietnam War record and rehashing his involvement in the early-1980s Abscam scandal. See Swiftboating John Murtha for details.

Climate change skepticism
Before leaving CNS, Morano wrote an article featuring attacks on NASA global warming scientist James E. Hansen by George C. Deutsch, a former NASA press aide accused of censoring Hansen.

Morano was hired in Spring 2006 as the Director of Communications to US Senator James Inhofe (R-OK). Senator Inhofe is a member and the former Chair of the Senate Committee for the Environment and Public Works, and has compared Tom Brokaw's climate change documentary to the "Big Lie," a Third Reich propaganda technique. Inhofe also claimed that "if we were to embrace the Kyoto treaty [on climate change], it would shut down agriculture, military and oil production in Oklahoma..."

Many believe that is it Morano who has been behind Inhofe's latest attacks on the scientific theory of man made climate change, and this was confirmed by an appearance of Morano at the 2006 Society of Environmental Journalists, where Morano was on a climate change panel with Andrew Revkin (New York Times) and Bill Blakemore (ABC News).

An August 2007 entry by Morano on Inhofe's EPW Committee blog claimed that "proponents of man-made global warming have been funded to the tune of $50 BILLION in the last decade or so, but the Magazine chose instead to focus on how skeptics have reportedly received a paltry $19 MILLION from ExxonMobil over the last two decades." Morano offered no documentation to support the "$50 BILLION" claim, and cited only one figure to support the "$19 MILLION" claim -- a statement that "skeptics have reportedly received a paltry $19 MILLION from ExxonMobil over the last two decades," falsely suggesting that ExxonMobil was the only source of funding for global warming "skeptics."

Writing in the New York Times, Leslie Kaufman noted that Morano, while working for Inhofe, had authored a report titled More than 700 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims. One of those cited in the report was Steve Rayner, from Oxford University. However, Rayner -- who doesn't dispute global warming though has been critical of the Kyoto Protocol -- described his inclusion as “quite outrageous" and had asked for his name to be removed from the report. Despite being told by an Inhofe staffer that it would be removed, it hasn't. Morano is unrepentant, claiming instead that Rayner must be "not to be remembering this clearly."

Further documentation of Marc Morano's involvement in denying climate change science and interfering with U.S. climate policy discussions is available from Media Matters for America.

Durban COP17
While most climate activists were denied a podium or a venue at the Durban COP17 conference, climate change deniers were accorded a platform. One of the hawks on this platform was Marc Morano.

Profiles
"As a CNSNews.com correspondent, Morano has traveled to such destinations as South America and Africa. Marc was also a reporter and producer for the Rush Limbaugh Television Show from 1992 to 1996, his biographical note states.

Morano was "a producer and correspondent for the nationally syndicated television newsmagazine American Investigator." In 2000 Marc Morano went to the Brazilian Amazon rainforests to film a documentary for American Investigator. Featured in the film was Patrick Moore, former Greenpeace activist turned corporate consultant.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
 * ClimateDepot.com
 * Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow
 * Cybercast News Service
 * James Inhofe

By Morano

 * "Kerry 'Unfit to be Commander-in-Chief,' Say Former Military Colleagues," May 3, 2004.
 * "'Bored Out of Our Skulls' by Clinton Memoir, Goldberg Says," June 18, 2004.
 * With Randy Hall, "Murtha's Anti-War Stance Overshadows Abscam Past," January 13, 2006.
 * With Randy Hall, "Murtha's War Hero Status Called Into Question," January 13, 2006.
 * Marc Morano, "Prospects for Cap-and-Trade Legislation in the New Congress", Presentation to the Heartland Institute's International Conference on Climate Change (2009), March 9, 2009. (PowerPoint)

Other articles

 * Sarah Posner, "Not So Slim Pickens," The Gadflyer, January 21, 2005.
 * Hunter, "Murtha-Bashing CNSNews Hack Now On Senate Payroll, Denies Climate Change," Daily Kos, June 29, 2006.
 * Bob Kall, "Brokaw AND Global Warming Attacked by Gov Paid Media Attack Artist," OpEdNews, July 11, 2006.
 * David Roberts, "Inhofe press flacks 'worst people in the world'," Grist Magazine, July 13, 2006. See MSNBC video.
 * John Rennie, "Senator Inhofe's Pet Weasel," ScientificAmerican.com, July 20, 2006.
 * Terry Krepel, "Lies, Conservatives and Statistics: Marc Morano's Fantasy", ConWebWatch, August 23, 2007.
 * Leslie Kaufman, "Dissenter on Warming Expands His Campaign", New York Times, April 9, 2009.
 * Jill Fitzsimmons and Shauna Theel, "Climate Change Misinformer of the Year: Marc Morano", Media Matters for America, December 27, 2012.
 * "DeSmogBlog database: Marc Morano", DeSmogBlog, January, 2012.