Al Gore slams Fox News on climate coverage

[RiverStone]

Source: USA Today

Al Gore, often derided by climate skeptics for his clarion call on the perils of global warming, is blasting Fox News for its coverage of climate change.

"Fox News has consistently delivered false and misleading information to its viewers about the climate crisis," the former vice president wrote on his blog this week. "The leaked e-mails now suggest that this bias comes directly from the executives responsible for their news coverage."

Gore is referring to an e-mail that Bill Sammon, the Washington, DC, managing editor at Fox News, sent last December to Fox News producers just as the United Nations climate conference was beginning in Copenhagen. The e-mail was leaked to frequent Fox critic Media Matters, a self-described "progressive" watchdog group, which posted it online Wednesday.

"Given the controversy over the veracity of climate change data," Sammon wrote, "we should refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question. It is not our place as journalists to assert such notions as facts, especially as this debate intensifies."

Neither Sammon nor Fox News responded to requests for comment, Politico reports.

"There's no legitimate debate: the planet is warming," Gore writes. "Moreover, man-made global warming pollution is the principal cause." Citing Media Matters, he notes what happened 15 minutes before Sammon sent the e-mail:

Read more: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/12/al-gore-fox-news-manipulates-climate-coverage/1?csp=34

[SleeplessinSoCal]

1. Al Who? Why isn't he out there more?

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[elocs]

16. Type "Al Gore" in the search box to the right of the Logout key and see what you get.

Al Gore probably gets mentioned here at DU about once a week, and it's worse in the msm where I rarely see or read of him being mentioned at all.

I don't think anyone claims he is not doing enough, just that it doesn't appear that he is vocal enough for the entire country to pay attention to climate change, especially when he was so vocal and public about it years ago.

[lunatica]

8. Maybe if you bother to look you'll find he's out there plenty

He is a founder and current chair of the Alliance for Climate Protection, the co-founder and chair of Generation Investment Management, the co-founder and chair of Current TV, a member of the Board of Directors of Apple Inc., and a senior adviser to Google.<6> Gore is also a partner in the venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, heading that firm's climate change solutions group.<7><8> He has served as a visiting professor at Middle Tennessee State University, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Fisk University, and the University of California, Los Angeles.<6><9><10><11>

Gore has received a number of awards including the Nobel Peace Prize (joint award with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) (2007), a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album (2009) for his book An Inconvenient Truth,<12> a Primetime Emmy Award for Current TV (2007), and a Webby Award (2005). Gore was also the subject of the Academy Award-winning (2007) documentary An Inconvenient Truth in 2006. In 2007 he was named a runner-up for Time's 2007 Person of the Year.<13>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore

[bitchkitty]

23. He is out there.

Don't blame him, blame the media. Remember the election "coverage" he got?

[goforit]

26. Hmmmm..... Were you the one that set Al up with rape too?

With 556 posts yah don't know much

[fasttense]

2. Did you read some of those wacko comments posted on the link?

I think the climate deniers are out in force recently. They seem to want to smear Al Gore more than they want to NOT believe fossil fuels and corporations are destroying our earth. I wonder if any of them would buy a bridge I have?

I bet they are mostly paid by fossil fuel CEOs who are making billions every time one of those idiot paid bloggers post their fake opinions for $10. It's amazing how people will sell out even their planet for a few dollars.

In the future, when our grandchildren are trapped inside because the earth is so inhospitable, I bet those paid bloggers will be looked on as Christians look on Judas.

[nxylas]

5. Let me see if I can guess

I'm going to have a look at the comments as soon as I finish typing this, but I think I can already guess what's in them:

1) Lots of stuff about the size of Gore's house.
2) People saying "ManBearPig" a lot, as if it constitutes a counter-argument to the science.
3) Dark conspiracy theories about how Gore paid off 95% of the world's climate scientists as a promotional drive for his movie. Since An Inconvenient Truth made less than $50 million worldwide, this doesn't strike me as much of a return on his investment.

Maybe if I can collect a few more, I can create some sort of Al Gore Denier Response Bingo.

[SpiralHawk]

3. And now Fox will go 24/7 with more more more lies attacking Gore

Gore's blog is a popgun of truth, against a nuclear bomb of republicon-Fox lies.

Alas.

[Supersedeas]

32. there is sure to be a catalog of unsubstantiated personal attack pieces in their vaults

[Wednesdays]

35. They are NOT lies! Gore RAPED two women in Sweden!

I'm series!

[ehrnst]

6. People have called FoxNews' data "into question." (nt)

[HopeHoops]

15. Fox Noise "data" comes from the same place as the dog turds in my yard.

[spicegal]

7. Fox is hurting this country (and the world) in so many

ways..whether it's climate change, the economy, wars, etc. You name it. They have their viewers believing lies that are detrimental to our welfare.

[bluethruandthru]

10. +1000000

Fox is responsible for so many problems! They and the right wing wacko radio hosts keep spreading lies to the masses who think they're hearing the truth!

Instead of debating issues and discussing solutions to the problems we face....we are forced to just try to counter the absolute lies told by the other side.

[PerpetuallyDazed]

12. And the end game will have created a cynical, disenfranchised public.

Whether that is their intention or not, (although the conspiracy theorist in me thinks so!) I suspect in the next generation or two we will see a rise in political apathy and even lower citizen activism in the U.S.

[groundloop]

9. What's really sickening about this is the extent to which big money can influence "facts"

It's really shocking how a relatively small number of rich individuals, who may be inconvenienced when we get serious about fixing this problem, are able to manipulate this particular discussion to the extent that they have. They put money into telling their lies long enough until many lesser educated people buy into their story, and now we can't seem to do anything to solve the problem.

[Uncle Joe]

21. It's easier for them to brainwash their believers because it's emotionally

difficult to accept the truth.

[Roy Rolling]

11. They laughed at Gore's....

idea of putting Social Security funds in a "lockbox" so that it couldn't be raided to pay for irresponsible government spending sprees. Well, here we are 10 years later and that fund is stuffed with IOUs from the government and the government debt has skyrocketed.

I guess Al Gore has the last laugh on that one.

[jimlup]

13. On mainstream forums Al is just a source of ridicule.

People have been brainwashed into thinking he's somehow a profit hungry hypocrite. Even people who would otherwise be capable of thinking believe this crap. I'm always on the defensive as soon as I bring up Al Gore. I get, "profits from his invented crises", "he has a really big house that wastes lots of energy", "he flies all the time and uses lots of CO2", "he's a joke". Any help preempting these would be appreciated. I'd prefer to have zingers that sting hard. I don't like playing defense. In the climate debate we should never be on the defensive, yet we always are: climate gate, Al Gore, etc. I'm pissed as hell at Fox and the rest of the mainstream media for echoing them.

[underpants]

33. Yep I 've heard several times "Well Al Gore must be making lots more money on THIS"

followed by knowing laughter.

The capitalist have made Al a pariah for making money.... which he isn't actually doing.

[Wednesdays]

36. Riiiiight.

And the energy CEOs never make any money, do they? Or if they do, they're all such noble philanthropists, they give every last penny of their meager profits to the downtrodden among us. :eyes:

Edit: BTW, who needs Faux Noise, when we got 'em right here on DU! (See post #14).

[Romulox]

14. Al Gore's advocacy is tainted by his personal hypocrisy (note multiple SUVs parked outside mansion)

And apparently "living green" can include MULTIPLE mansion like homes? :wtf:



So...if Al really believes what he advocates... just when is HE going to start conserving? :shrug:

[secondwind]

17. I think Gore has private security or Secret Service protection. Just because there are cars

in his driveway, and his lights are on, does not mean that is message is tainted.

This is a Republican talking point that is old and tiresome.

When we -- all of us, the entire planet -- begin to take this seriously, then we will be building homes like they are building in Germany that trap heat, etc.

Meantime, the guy has to live SOMEWHERE. Just sayin'.

[Romulox]

18. LOL: "the guy has to live SOMEWHERE". And that "SOMEWHERE" happens to be multiple mansions!

"This is a Republican talking point that is old and tiresome."

It's reality--a real inconvenient truth. :shrug:

[Uncle Joe]

22. Only for those people that can't see the forest for the trees. Was FDR's advocacy for the poor

tainted by his living in a mansion?

[bullwinkle428]

27. But it would MEAN so much MORE if FDR lived in a pole building!

:rofl:

:evilgrin:

[Romulox]

28. For me to "conserve" like Al, I'd have to produce MASSIVE additional amounts of CO2

"Was FDR's advocacy for the poor tainted by his living in a mansion?"

Did FDR claim that creating poverty was an existential threat to humanity while SPEWING poor people out of a smokestack (and profiting tidily from the whole mess, naturally!)>

If not, perhaps your analogy isn't on "all fours". :hi:

[Uncle Joe]

31. You're still focusing on the tree and not the forest. The Gores took an existing near 100 year old

energy guzzler and converted it to the second highest energy rating home that you can get.

Al Gore lives a carbon neutral lifestyle, he pays extra for energy to subsidize renewable energy and green technology. I would be willing to wager that you don't pay anywhere near the amount for progressive change like Al does either.

Gore didn't make relatively large sums of money until his political career was over but he's been a strong advocate for green technology and warning of the threat from global warming since the 80s.

Gore recognized that money from the fossil fuel industry was the biggest obstacle to changing government's position on this critical issue.

His post political career has been about equalizing that income disparity between dead energy industries and live renewable energy sources as a partner in the venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, heading that firm's climate change solutions group. Personally I hope Gore makes millions from changing the world.

FDR lived before the threat of all out nuclear war and the knowledge of human magnified global warming as a threat came in to existence, furthermore he didn't live past his political career.

I believe FDR did recognize the national security implications from great income disparity as exhibited in this 1936 speech, but he didn't sell all his possessions and give it to the poor or change his opulent lifestyle, that doesn't detract from the greatness of the man, he changed government for the better, that's the forest.

http://www.austincc.edu/lpatrick/his2341/fdr36acceptancespeech.htm

Al Gore has done more to bring the issue of global warming climate change to the forefront of public knowledge than any other political leader in spite of the vast array of moneyed interests and corporate media propaganda machine against him and the message. He has also worked as a public servant to give the people a channel around or through that corporate media propaganda machine by championing the Internet, that's also the forest.


:hi:

[Kingofalldems]

19. K and R for diversion boy

[Uncle Joe]

20. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, RiverStone.

[The Backlash Cometh]

24. FoxNews: False and Misleading.

It's a catchy title.

[myrna minx]

25. K&R n/t

[defendandprotect]

29. Good for Gore ... Frank Luntz -- GOP propagandist changed Global Warming to "climate change" ...

told W he should do it --

it disconnects Global Warming from its full history which goes back more

than 100 years when scientists first understood the Industrial Revolution was

impacting nature -- trees.

We've known since the 1950's that Global Warming was a threat -- which was

responded to only by the propaganda of the oil industry for more than 50 years!

And still their lies and disinformation go on and on --

[otohara]

30. Pure Outright Propaganda

24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year!

That's a lot of propaganda.

[azul]

34. President Al Gore!

Who should have whupped the usurper's ass and banished the traitorous supreme court to exile, and then assumed the mantle of Green Goddess under his better half's supervision. What a fantastic future we would have today if this had happened so.

Instead, we got oil for blood and sea of debt.

We let the real hope-for-the-future president get run over, get character assassinated, by big business interests. And the guilt trip is a flash-back into the future. A future going tragically wrong.

[Maineman]

37. FOX behavior sounds like conspiracy to

misinform and mislead the public about something that has potential life and death consequences for masses of people. Isn't this illegal? Can't someone sue FOX?