Bishop Hill News of the World and UEA
Jul 14, 2011 Climate: CRU Media From the comments at Climate Audit:
““We don’t advertise a lot of the things we do,” says Edwards, who was called in by the University of East Anglia when Climategate blew up. “That was really interesting. It’s very high level, and you’re very much in the background on that sort of thing.”
The university’s Climatic Research Unit wanted Outside to fire back some shots on the scientists’ behalf after leaked emails from the unit gave climate change skeptics ammunition and led to an avalanche of negative press about whether global warming was a real possibility.
“They came to us and said, `We have a huge problem – we are being completely knocked apart in the press,’” says Sam Bowen. “They needed someone with heavyweight contacts who could come in…”
This morning the Managing Director of the Outside Organisation was Former News of the World executive editor Neil Wallis (he’s not MD any longer), Neil Wallis was deputy to Andy Coulson at News of the World. Andy Coulson until recently worked for the Prime Minster David Cameron.
Andy Coulson was arrested a few days ago, Neil Wallis was arrested this morning.
Bishop Hill
The full MusicWeek article about the Outside Organisation is here. There's not much more about Wallis, apart from a few paragraphs confirming that he headed the UEA project:
The role of Neil Wallis, formerly editor of The People, deputy editor of The Sun and, most recently, executive editor of the News Of The World, is to lend heavy-hitting tabloid expertise, leading some jobs, following Edwards on others.
“Most of my career has been spent working at the top end of tabloid newspapers, so I know how they work and how they think,” says Wallis. “This is not that different, actually. You have very creative people, you have fastmoving situations, you have to think on your feet.”
Wallis led on the University of East Anglia “climategate” job, when Outside was drafted in to help the university’s Climatic Research Unit defend itself against charges of scientific misconduct.
Reader Comments (83)
I am unsurprised that there are descending layers of as-yet unexplored murk attached to the UEA and the Climategate revelations. What does surprise me is how rapidly the entire farrago is unravelling now a few threads have been teased out. The resulting eventual denouement should ensure that the Establishment in various spheres, from science to politics, gets their collective feet back on a morally and ethically effective path. Hopefully.
Martin Brumby, I followed your link to Bishop Cranmer; the sheer number of actual hacking offences by journalists NOT employed by NOTW is staggering!
GC,
Well I'm sure there will be a place for the 'firery redhead' somewhere withn TERI. The good 'Dr Raj' is well known for his like and fantasising about perople of the opposite sex.
My best guess is that she'll lie low for a while (couple of years) and re-surface in a nice well paid job on the PR side somewhere within the City mayb?. As in most situations within the media, there will be people who she has done favours for who will be happy to return the favour. At the moment though she is too much of a 'hot potato' but a couple of years from now after all the dust has settled down again, she'll now doubt make a comeback.
Clearly she'll have had a lucrative book deal by then and we'll no doubt see her on various chart shows promoting it. Sadly people like Rebekh Brooks always come up swelling of roses eventually and rarely if ever get their just deserts.
KevinUK, there may be many people who would pay her, so that she does not write the book. This appears to be the pattern emerging from News International, Met Police, Press Complaints Commission etc, and now our beloved UEA (just to return to the thread)
Presumably her resignation does not negate her Summons to the Commons Committee?
I think that the 97% of Climate Scientists, that did believe in the integrity of the Climategate enquiries, may not be quite so sure.
I don't suppose Newton and Hooke employed PR gurus in their disputes. And I don't suppose the state of human knowledge is the worse for it.
Robert Hooke used Edmond Halley as an advocate in communicating his side of the dispute to Newton, and John Aubrey to put his point of view to others (arguably PR). There is nothing new ...
We put scientists on a pedestal at our peril. They are human beings who have to make a living in a world that has always undervalued knowledge for its own sake. They may feel the need to use worldly tools from time to time.
This NoW connection is tenuous to say the least and we risk appearing hysterical.
Skeptical Chymist,
That's interesting. Certainly Halley knew the subject matter and probably Aubry too - at any rate, one assumes better than Neil Wallis understands climate science.
Regards,
Neil McEvoy
@Skyptical Chymist
'We put scientists on a pedestal at our peril'
Little danger of falling into that trap round here!
LA - (Even More Skyptical Chymist)
A truly amazing turn of events, this!
I would hazard the guess that now, with Steve McIntyre 'on the case' across the Big Pond, and you all here, the Murdoch empire has more to fear than from a white-washing British Judicial Inquiry or even an investigation by the FBI ...
(Ok, one can dream, no?)
@Mac Jul 15, 2011 at 9:47 AM
[had excerpted from OO's about page;]
Looks like my question to OO re Wallis and their "climategate job" [pls. see above Jul 15, 2011 at 12:24 AM | hro001] may not have been the right kind of "digital noise" from their perspective. It was still in moderation a few hours ago; yet when I refreshed the page at approx. 10:53 AM PDT, my comment had disappeared! Quelle surprise, eh?! So, I thought I'd give OO another chance: I've reposted, noting the above-mentioned disappearance.
Some debate about this in the comments thread here
http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/2011/07/open-thread_15.html#comments
Does anyone else feel slightly sickened by the BBC revelling in the current headlining news? Are they so pure? No political fief or favours, editorial compacts?
Kevin
"she'll lie low for a while"
Very likely. Private Eye has suggested she may originally have been holding out for maternity leave, but events caught up with her. Shame... :-)
Carina Trimingham started working for the outside organisation in 2003, if you can believe the daily mail, she's the current(?) girlfriend of Chris Huhne.
bish,
was wondering if this is the same Neil Wallis. hope someone in the UK will check it out:
5 July 2011: ENVIRONMENT: EVs' green claims require a fuller lifecycle
assessment
...argues Neil Wallis, head of communications at the LCVP...
http://analysis.evupdate.com/industry-insight/environment-evs%E2%80%99-green-claims-require-fuller-lifecycle-assessment
The Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership -Accelerating the shift to low carbon
vehicles and fuels in the UK
Neil Wallis
Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (UK)
83 Victoria St
London
SW1H 0HW
UK+ (0)20 3178 7859
http://lowcvp.org.uk/assets/presentations/EEBW%20-%20Prague%2012.11.08%20(NW).pdf
8 Oct 2004: Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership: LowCVP at Party Conferences
A 'future fuels reception' will be held at the LibDem Conference at 9.15pm on 21st September at the Bryanston Suite, Highcliff Hotel. Vince Cable, LibDem Treasury spokesman, will address the reception.
At the Labour Conference (lunchtime, 27 September), LowCVP are co-organisers of a fringe meeting: "How should we fuel our cars for a lower carbon future"
(Brighton, Sussex Arts Centre). Environment minister Elliot Morley is on the panel.
During lunchtime on 6 October at the Conservative Conference (Stour 2, Bournemouth International Centre) there will be a fringe meeting on the subject of future fuels and vehicles. Conservative shadow transport secretary Damian Green is on the panel.
The above events are being held by LowCVP in collaboration with UKPIA...
For more information, contact Neil Wallis (neil.wallis@lowcvp.org.uk), 020
7340 2695
http://lowcvp.org.uk/events/98/searchresults/
UKPIA: Welcome to the website of the United Kingdom Peroleum Industry
Association (UKPIA), the trade association representing the main oil refining and marketing companies in the UK
http://www.ukpia.com/home.aspx
28 May 2010: LowCVP Low Carbon Champions Awards 2010 - call for nominations
The LowCVP Awards winners will be assessed by a panel of expert judges drawn
from the LowCVP's wide range of stakeholder organisations. The judges for
the Awards are:
Neil Wallis, LowCVP etc etc etc
http://lowcvp.org.uk/news/1408/searchresults/
I saw that, fairly sure it's a different Guy.
"I wonder if I had my phone hacked?"
I'm wondering the same thing. I suggest we both make DPA requests to UEA and Outside.
I know UEA passed my details to the Norfolk Police.
thanks chu.
chu -
the MSM is not touching this story, as u no doubt know, and u can't even comment on an article such as the one below, which goes into great detail about Wallis, but conveniently
15 July: Independent: Fleet Street's 'Wolfman': hardened hack with a hotline to the Met
Ian Burrell on the executive some say was too close to Scotland Yard
He later took a role with the showbiz PR company Outside Organisation and worked for clients including Naomi Campbell and the media mogul Richard Desmond...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/fleet-streets-wolfman-hardened-hack-with-a-hotline-to-the-met-2314076.html
am hoping james delingpole or christopher booker will break this one wide open.
@tallbloke Jul 15, 2011 at 11:47 PM wrote:
OK, these may seem like a really silly (if not completely off the wall!) questions ... But, first, the preamble ...Consider:
A. The fact that the ICO's 2006 "What price privacy now: The first six months progress in halting the unlawful trade in confidential personal information" report contains (p. 10):
B. Neil Wallis, the "lead" on OO's "climategate job", has (now) known high-level connections within (at least) one law enforcement agency and might, IMHO, be reasonably assumed to possess ... uh ..."values" which do not preclude utilization of "imaginative" (if not illegal) strategies in order to best serve the interests of his client (in this case CRU/UEA)
In light of the above, my questions to our noble host, to tallbloke and to others who were contacted by the
Keystone copsNorfolk police:1. Did you have the opportunity to confirm that the person contacting you was, in fact, a bona fide member of the Norfolk police?
2. Knowing now what you could not have known then, can you recall any of the questions put to you which (albeit in hindsight) might be somewhat, well, questionable?!
The reason I ask is similar to my previously mentioned unwilling suspension of disbelief regarding all the post-Climategate "poor Phil" pieces in the U.K. press. IOW, my intuition (which has rarely let me down!) at the time of reading people's accounts of their close encounters of the inquisitive kind, kept telling me that 'there's something not quite right about all this' but I couldn't figure out what it was!
Considering OO's penchant for ... uh ... orchestrations, I thought it might be worth asking the above questions (even if they do seem silly and/or completely off the wall!)
@hr001
1)Did you have the opportunity to confirm that the person contacting you was, in fact, a bona fide member of the Norfolk police?
Yes, I rang them back after they emailed me and confirmed the ID of the officer. He then rang me some days later to conduct the interview.
2)Knowing now what you could not have known then, can you recall any of the questions put to you which (albeit in hindsight) might be somewhat, well, questionable?!
All the questions were reasonable in terms of what they were trying to investigate.
They probed my motivation in making an FOI request to UEA for several confidentiality agreements which allegedly existed between CRU and the Met offices of Caribbean countries (Including Cuba).
During the conversation the officer intimated that personally, he agreed with me that there was no good reason for the withholding of climate data!
The questioning then probed my own interest in climatology, my level of computer expertise and knowledge of computer server systems. I was asked whether I thought it was a hack or a leak and the interview questions rounded off by asking who my ISP was. The officer commented that some of the other people he had interviewed were reluctant to impart that information.
It was all very congenial and I got the impression the officer was open minded about the whole affair, as an investigator should be. Some people are commenting that they think the Norfolk police investigation has been suppressed, but my impression is that they simply don't have anything much to report.
"Sorry guv, we dunno whodunnit."
A cursory seaarch of the MSM today did not reveal anything about the CRU/OO affair but the East Anglian Daily News had it as a headline although there was no mention of it being 'covert'.
Hmmm ........... so Climate Psyience is "showbiz" now.
If "politics is showbiz for ugly people".......( Jay Leno)...........
..............maybe Climate Psyience is "showbiz for second rate lab rats".
@foxgoose
Or maybe showbiz for squirrels (tree rats)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-x-NiiedjM&feature=player_embedded
http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/crime/ex_news_of_the_world_man_advised_uea_over_climategate_1_965732
The concern expressed in the MSM by the UK government that N. Wallis (through the various companies he was involved with) was doing PR business with the MET (police) and Scotland Yard is getting a lot of attention; rightly so.
That Wallis was also doing business with UEA CRU has been occasionally mentioned. Other than the group of blogs that have closely followed Climategate, his involvement in East Anglia’s affairs isn’t being broadly focused on and investigated YET.
For me it is very crucial whether the EA police were significantly and closely associated with Wallis as part of his employment by UEA CRU. I look forward to the inevitable auditing/probing of that area.
After a year and a half, the significant lack of the EA police department’s reported progress needs to be evaluated now in a new more critical way. I expect the EAPD knows this focus on them will happen. I predict that we will get a more detailed report on their investigation into the UEA CRU Climategate affair VERY SOON.
Cross posted on CA.
John
http://cutoday.net/2011/03/30/tales-from-the-tabloids/
"In their rubbishing exercise on him, masterminded by a PR outfit The Outside Organisation, they say he was a mere ‘casual’.He points to 850 story bylines and showed some of them to the audience. "
@richpeppiatt on twitter, his twitter feed is interesting.
Clive Goodman was also re-arrested for phone hacking at Daily Star offices last week and the Daily Star press release denying any knowledge of phone hacking was apparently issued by "The Outside Organisation".
Thanks, tallbloke. Although I find:
to be somewhat odd! Even if one were using gmail, a quick glance through the headers would reveal the sender's actual ISP in most cases, would it not?! Oh, well ... perhaps s/he was testing your honesty :-)
@John Whitman Jul 16, 2011 at 5:41 PM :
Indeed! IMHO, knowing now what we did not know then, this is the crux of the matter.
the norfolk piece: the comments by two people, both claiming they can see no relevance in writing the article. guess they don't like it being published. great. there's a french piece online as well but i haven't tried translating it yet.
this remains the biggest story since Climategate broke. u can tell by the fact the MSM is churning out a million words a day on this scandal (which involves so much more media than News), yet no-one can mention the UEA story, even tho it overlaps Wallis' work for the Police. don't u love how this story has two IPCC's and two Met Offices!
some mentions worth posting to show the story has a life of its own for now:
Facebook: Concrete: UEA's Independent Student Newspaper
Neil Wallis, a former executive editor arrested as part of the investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World, advised UEA over the Climategate scandal in 2009. For the full story, see today's EDP...
http://www.facebook.com/ConcreteNewspaper
India Times: Bishop Hill 2 days ago
News of the World and UEA
MusicWeek article about the Outside Organisation is here. There's not much more about Wallis, apart from a few paragraphs confirming that he headed the UEA project: ...
full article at Bishop Hill
http://oneclick.indiatimes.com/article/0cvYam5dih5Ds?q=News+of+the+World
USA Today: From the Web: Wattsupwiththat: One more reason to distrust CRU and UEA – their hired spinmeister was arrested in the News of the World phone hack scandal
Watts Up With That
Today brings news of the arrest of the managing director of a firm hired by the University of East Anglia’s CRU (Climatic Research Unit) to carry out “covert” operations – h/t reader Chu here). Neil Wallis of Outside Organisation was arrested today
http://www.usatoday.com/topics/more+articles/Organizations/Schools/University+of+East+Anglia
17 July: Contrepoints: Revue d’actualité du samedi 16 juillet à 12h
(google translation)Arrest of Neil Wallis. A ninth person was arrested, Neil Wallis, nicknamed "the werewolf information" because of its abundant facial hair and temperament of an aggressive tone. In the News of the World, he was a delegate of the editor ("editor") Andy Coulson before taking over. After his career at NewsCorp he joined the communications company Outside Organisation prominent but very discreet carrier missions which he was a leading figure. He recently communications adviser to the police. Outside Organisation have also been selected by the CRU at the University of East Anglia following the scandal that revealed climategate reprehensible methods of the small clique warming science is pulling the strings of global climate
http://www.contrepoints.org/2011/07/16/35123-revue-dactualite-du-samedi-16-juillet-a-12h
16 July: Spectator: James Forsyth: The spotlight moves onto the police
Reader comment: Alphabet Soup: Wallis was a PR consultant to the UEA at the time of the Climategate affair.
Join the dots.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7103183/thespotlight-moves-onto-the-police.thtml
16 July: NYT: Stain From Tabloids Rubs Off on a Cozy Scotland Yard
By DON VAN NATTA Jr.
Jo Becker contributed reporting
Members of Parliament said in interviews that they were troubled by a “revolving door” between the police and News International, which included a former top editor at The News of the World at the time of the hacking who went on to work as a media strategist for Scotland Yard.
On Friday, The New York Times learned that the former editor, Neil Wallis, was reporting back to News International while he was working for the police on the hacking case...
Since the hacking scandal began in 2006, Mr. Yates and others regularly dined with editors from News International papers, records show. Sir Paul Stephenson, the police commissioner, met for meals 18 times with company executives and editors during the investigation, including on eight occasions with Mr. Wallis while he was still working at The News of the World.
Senior police officials declined several requests to be interviewed for this article.
The police have continually asserted that the original investigation was limited because the counterterrorism unit, which was in charge of the case, was preoccupied with more pressing demands. At the parliamentary committee hearing last week, the three officials said they were working on 70 terrorist investigations...
Three months later, Mr. Wallis, the former deputy editor of The News of the World, was hired by Scotland Yard to provide strategic media advice on phone-hacking matters to the police commissioner, among others. Scotland Yard confirmed last week that the commissioner, Sir Paul, had personally approved nearly $40,000 in payments to Mr. Wallis for his work.
But when Mr. Wallis was interviewed in April by a New York Times reporter working on a story about the hacking, he did not disclose his new media role at Scotland Yard...
Current and former officials said that shortly after Scotland Yard began looking into the hacking, five senior police investigators discovered that their own phones might have been broken into by The News of the World.
At last week’s hearing in Parliament, Mr. Hayman, one of the five, denied knowing if his phone had been hacked. ..
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/world/europe/17police.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
17 July: UK Tele: Phone hacking: Police chief, trip to spa and a matter of judgment
By Robert Mendick and Patrick Hennessy
Outside had picked up the contract to manage Champneys in November last year, two months before Sir Paul’s stay.
Sir Paul was already under intense pressure over the decision to hire Mr Wallis as a media consultant to the Met police for 12 months, until he quit in September 2010 amid further revelations of phone hacking..
The spokesman said: “Sir Paul was invited for intensive physiotherapy and the Met paid for the medical part and Champneys hosted him. As a result he got back to work six weeks earlier. He stayed there from Monday to Friday for about five weeks. Mr Wallis had absolutely nothing to do with it although we now discover he is a PR adviser. The Wallis link is a total red herring.”
The gift is not declared in Scotland Yard’s publicly published register of hospitality which covers the period until March this year, although the spokesman insisted it had been registered in April and would be published shortly...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8643090/Phone-hacking-Police-chief-trip-to-spa-and-a-matter-of-judgment.html
17 July: Independent: PA: Met chief's spa stay 'not a jolly'
Mr Purdew last night said he was "outraged" by suggestions the stay was arranged by Wallis.
He said: "He (Sir Paul) came here to recover from cancer and a broken leg, to say it was a gift or a jolly is outrageous. It is a bloody disgrace.
"He was here for about a month. He was seriously ill so he stayed with me and this has backfired terribly."
He said the fact Wallis was working as a consultant for Champneys at the same time was coincidental.
"Neil Wallis, by coincidence, did some work for us. I have known Sir Paul Stephenson for 20-odd years and this is totally unrelated.
"Neil Wallis does not work for us any more. It was a company he was working for, Outside Organisation, that did and this is a diversion. I didn't even know Neil Wallis had done any work for us." ,,,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/met-chiefs-spa-stay-not-a-jolly-2315248.html
17 July: Guardian: Daniel Boffey and Mark Townsend: Met chiefs on drinking terms with former NoW deputy editor
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jul/16/paul-stephenson-drinks-neil-wallis
the norfolk eastern daiy press story was fascinating in what it did and din't say. there are only two comments:
Thoreauwasright: Sorry, but I fail to see the point of this article. My reaction, having read it three times, is still "so what?
Ziggy: Thoreauwasright...glad its not just me who fails to see the relevance of this article...has Rebekah Brooke been to Norwich at all? I think this should be investigated because at this rate it clearly merits an article too....
i get the feeling thoreauwasright is not your everyday local, and it surprises me that anybody would bother objecting to the article anyway.
17 July: Sky News: Met Chief Back In The Dock Over Wallis Links
Sky News has now learnt Sir Paul spent time at a health farm where Mr Wallis was working as a PR consultant.
Sir Paul had an operation on his leg before Christmas to remove a pre-cancerous tumour.
He needed a second procedure just after Christmas to repair a fracture to a bone in that leg.
He then spent some time recuperating at a Champneys health resort.
The operation was funded by the Met's healthcare scheme but the accommodation was free as it was paid for by a friend of Sir Paul's, who was the managing director at the farm, Sky sources say.
And it is understood that Mr Wallis was working as a consultant for the resort.
Sky's Tom Parmenter said: "There is no suggestion at this stage that there is any overt wrongdoing between Sir Paul Stephenson staying at this health farm and their PR person being Neil Wallis.
"But nevertheless, it is about public perception and the questions that will inevitably follow."
A Met Police spokesman told Sky News that Sir Paul only learned of the connection between Mr Wallis and Champneys on Saturday.
"The accommodation and meals were arranged and provided by Stephen Purdew, MD of Champneys, a personal family friend who has no connection with or links to his professional life."
A spokesman said: "Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson is not considering his position. He declared it in gifts and hospitality for the sake of full transparency."
Phil Smith, Neil Wallis' solicitor, told Sky News: "There is no connection whatsoever between any stay that Sir Paul Stephenson may have had at Champneys and Neil Wallis.
"Neither Neil Wallis nor anyone connected to him had any involvement whatsoever in any visit or stay by Sir Paul Stephenson at Champneys."...
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Sir-Paul-Stephenson-Faces-Questions-Over-Links-To-Former-News-Of-The-World-Executive-Neil-Wallis/Article/201107316031710?lpos=UK_News_Top_Stories_Header_1&lid=ARTICLE_16031710_Sir_Paul_Stephenson_Faces_Questions_Over_Links_To_Former_News_Of_The_World_Executive_Neil_Wallis
thanx chu...
btw james evans on CA is wondering if the reason the police side is being carried out by the Counterterrorism Unit (same as Norfolk/Climategate) is because they are FOI-proof. does anyone know?
please bish, do not take this page off your homepage. we need it for further posting.
“Most of my career has been spent working at the top end of tabloid newspapers, so I know how they work and how they think”
Although somehow I expect that knowledge will desert him in the police interview room.
connolley doesn't even hint at wallis and UEA, but a couple of readers comment. not sure connolley would be happy they did:
17 July: Scienceblogs: Stoat: William M. Connolley: Phone hacking
comment by J Bowers: Apparently one of the arrested, Neil Wallis, was a business associate of Alan Edwards who was hired by UEA to help with the PR after Climategate, which Comical Anth’ny himself spins into, “One more reason to distrust CRU and UEA – their hired spinmeister was arrested in the News of the World phone hack scandal”.
So I guess CRU were in on the phone hacking in the minds of his accolytes, now. I wonder if CRU will ever stop beating its wife.
comment by deconvoluter: Which is worse, obtaining facts by ugly and illegal methods, or making them up?.
As a rough approximation, the UK side of News Corp is associated with the former crime while the US side has been vigorously pursuing the latter non-crime.
Anyone interested in science should be more concerned about the second as exhibited by Fox News.
It is also of interest that James M is less hostile to global warming science than Rupert has been, in practice, and it is James who may be in the firing line next week.
Big question: if the shareholders get more control over the running of News Corp, what proportion of the shares will belong to fossil fuelists?…
http://scienceblogs.com/stoat/2011/07/phone_hacking.php
you play in mud, all you get is dirty
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