Via reader John W., a skirmish has broken out between DaimlerChrysler and the BBC over a DaimlerChrysler executive’s comments about Europe’s alarmist attitudes toward global warming:
Speaking at an industry economic outlook conference Tuesday in Detroit, DaimlerChrysler economist Van Jolissaint discussed the divergent viewpoints on climate change around the world.
“Europe seems to take a political position that some people might describe, not me of course, that some people might describe as quasi-hysterical, that the sky is falling: we have to dramatically change the way that we organize society today and forever,” Jolissaint said.
DaimlerChrysler complained the BBC story made it appear as though the comments represented the German-American company’s position on global warming. On Wednesday, DaimlerChrysler issued a sharply worded statement saying Jolissaint had been misquoted and reiterated its stance on global warming.
The story ran on the BBC Web site under the headline: “Chrysler attacks global warming.”
The story said Jolissaint had “launched a fierce attack on ‘quasi-hysterical Europeans’ and their ‘Chicken Little’ attitudes to global warming.”
Read Jolissaint’s remarks and then read the BBC’s version. Some people, not me of course, might say that the BBC’s quasi-hysterical, sky-is-falling reaction to Jolissaint aptly illustrates the point he was trying to make.