Posted by
John Ostrowski on Thursday, August 09, 2007 11:14:53 AM
After about 20 "Final Notices," my subscription to Newsweek ended. I
had subscribed for two years to the "mainstream" weekly news magazine
that falls furthest to the left because I though balance was good.
Along with my changing beliefs has come the realization that Newsweek
is not so much liberal as it is pro-state. Anyway, it's a shame my
subscription has ended, because the most recent issue has done a
particularly good job of reinforcing the image of it I've come to hold
-- that of a propaganda rag for the establishment.
"
The Truth About Denial"
is what the article that really caught my attention is called. It
purports to reveal all the true motivations behind those skeptical of
global warming. In reality, it reads like a hit piece written by some
disgruntled green activist (one without any background in science
whatsoever). It's really a site to behold -- it's an article filled to
the brim with anti-"denial" quotes, but nary one defending those
skeptics who think prudence and good sense should win this battle.
There is nothing balanced about the reporting job done here. I don't
know where in the paper copy of Newsweek it falls, but I would hope in
the opinion section. Consider some choice quotes [
I've added my own comments in brackets]:
A conservative think tank long funded by ExxonMobil, she told Boxer,
had offered scientists $10,000 to write articles undercutting the new
report and the computer-based climate models it is based on. "I
realized," says Boxer, "there was a movement behind this that just
wasn't giving up."
[The
"conservative think tank" they are referring to is the AEI, which is
not so much conservative as neoconservative, meaning not conservative
at all. Nonetheless, according to the leftist Source Watch, Exxon Mobil
donated $252,500 to the AEI in 2001. This is compared to the $30
million that AEI has received from other large donors. How this makes
AEI funded by Exxon Mobil is beyond me.]...
But outside Hollywood, Manhattan and other habitats of the chattering
classes, the denial machine is running at full throttle—and continuing
to shape both government policy and public opinion.
[If
all else fails, accuse your opponents of running a "machine" that has
much more power than is actually possible. No need for real debate
here, ad hominems are enough for Newsweek.]...
"There was an extraordinary campaign by the denial machine to find and
hire scientists to sow dissent and make it appear that the research
community was deeply divided," says Dan Becker of the Sierra Club.
[Couldn't find a more non-partisan source than the Sierra Club, no-siree.]
...
In what would become a key tactic of the denial machine—think tanks
linking up with like-minded, contrarian researchers—the report was
endorsed in a letter to President George H.W. Bush by MIT meteorologist
Richard Lindzen. Lindzen, whose parents had fled Hitler's Germany, is
described by old friends as the kind of man who, if you're in the
minority, opts to be with you.
[Crafy,
crafty Newsweek. They have denied the importance of an MIT
meteorologist by stating that he likes being in the minority. And
having already discredited him, Newsweek is above responding to his (correct) observation about Kyoto:]After the about-face, MIT's Lindzen told NEWSWEEK in 2001, he was
summoned to the White House. He told Bush he'd done the right thing.
Even if you accept the doomsday forecasts, Lindzen said, Kyoto would
hardly touch the rise in temperatures. The treaty, he said, would "do
nothing, at great expense."
In no way can this embarrassment of a story be called objective journalism. It is propaganda pure and simple:
- It cites the Sierra Club and various Democratic/pro-global warming Republicans, but not any skeptics.
-
It makes no attempt to refute the scientific arguments put forth by
skeptics, opting instead only to attack their funding and motivations.
This is a classic ad hominem attack. Continuing in this vein, Newsweek
repeatedly refers to skeptics or those opposed in any way to the
establishment line on global warming as "deniers" who are part of a
large "machine."
- It
makes no attempt at introspection. Billions and billions of government
money is going to global warming research. If the threat is found to be
nonexistent, the funding disappears. Also, government can justify tax
increases by telling the public they will be fighting global warming
(well, they could if the public bought the establishment line; in the
story, Newsweek is forced to admit that the "denial machine" has been
successful in keeping the public skeptical of apocalyptic fantasies
that the green/media/government cabal wants you to entertain).
Newsweek never ranked very highly with me, but this story makes them sink even lower.