So, having sifted through a mountain of bullshit, I've finally found what I was looking for. Creeping through the thousands of hits of regurgitations of McAleer's version of events, I finally found a version that shows the whole question and answer session. I wouldn't say it's complete because it does not show McAleer's discussion with the guard, since that happened after the actual Q&A session was over, but, when taken together, we can get a much better sense of what happened.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH6fCE02xIAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUtzMBfDrpI See this? It's called providing context, even if it doesn't shine a positive light on your side of the story...The first thing you might notice is that these two gentlemen appear to be familiar with each other. This explains a great deal of the bitchiness behind Schneider's response. He's had his words twisted around by McAleer before. This is an understandable response.
We miss the first time they attempt to take the mic away (I'm thinking the girl is expecting that to be his only question, she doesn't know he has a publicity stunt set up, but that's just conjecture. The alternative was that they knew he was going to ask difficult questions and didn't print him a press pass... wait...), but we see the second time and can actually make out a bit of what she is saying. "This doesn't have anything to do with the presentation," or something to that effect. Sounds like
SUPPRESSION!
Schneider then says he'll keep it short. McAleer interrupts and they go back and forth for a good amount of time. It even gets a little bit heated. Schneider answers one other question, and that's the end of it. McAleer's video picks up at this point, and then there's a little bit with McAleer arguing with the guard at the end of the first video.
Apparently, there was no question limit, but I threw that out there to demonstrate that we need more context, and it's clear that I was right in that regard. This is all the context I need. This is a professional conference, McAleer was given much more than his fair share of time in the spotlight (you have your documentaries), and was merely hassling Schneider. There is no reason to have to put up with that, so when they noticed McAleer back in line to continue being a jerk, they had security escort him away. This is not suppression of dissent, this is removal of loons. This is why I said we needed to know more about what went on. It's now even more clear that McAleer can't be trusted to give a truthful version of events. Context. Ironically, what they were discussing relates exactly to this very issue. All those emails were used in the exact same way that McAleer used this Q&A session. They were taken out of context and used to prove a point that was not an accurate portrayal of events. This is why we, as scientists, think of "skeptics" as hand-wringing, word-twisting, liars. Because all of the popular arguments against a scientific perspective are framed just like this.
