Latest Attack on An Inconvenient Truth
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada 
on 05.22.06
An Inconvenient Truth, the movie about global warming (or "climate crisis", as Al Gore puts it), is targeted by many people and organizations who are using all kinds of tactics to try to discredit it even before it comes out in theaters; We've seen the ridiculously misleading Exxon-backed CEI ads (at least one scientist, Curt Davis, author of the research on the Antarctic ice sheet, is very mad that his research is misrepresented in those ads), numerous attacks against the messenger instead of the message, and a focus on minutiae instead of the broad scientific points made by the movie. The latest attack comes from Matt Drudge of the Druge Report, and his tactic is apparently to make stuff up (or relay made up information passed on to him without verification). The Drudge Report showed all day: "BURN: Gore & entourage took 5 cars to travel 500 yards from hotel to screening of global warming pic in Cannes...". Of course, he cited no source. Think Progress decided to verify the story and found out that "Al Gore and his associates walked from the Majestic Hotel to the screening at Cannes. Further, Paramount has committed to making the entire tour promoting the film carbon neutral." The Drudge Report has now removed that text, but without a retractation, mentioning the new correct facts or apologizing to its readers for misleading them. :: Drudge Falsely Smears Gore, ::RealClimate Reviews the Science of An Inconvenient Truth, ::The Saga Continues: FOX News on An Inconvenient Truth
Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Take it from a Beatle: Cut Your Carbon Footprint by Making Mondays Meat-Free
- Couch Potatoes: Celebrate World Environment Day with a Free, Feature-Length Film
- 5 Reuses for: Watermelon
- Donate a Single Dollar to Do Some Really Affordable Good
- Think It's Too Late for a Garden? You're Wrong
- Surf Green with Eco-Friendly Surf Gear
At first this kind of thing really infuriates me. But then it dawned on me... this hubbub has brought nut-jobs like Drudge and blatantly evil lobbies to light, and by their own choosing. I do still hope that there is some sort of tangible price these entities will have to pay down the line, it would be a shame to allow them to disappear into the shadows.
I think it was grade school when I learned that gross exaggeration and passing false rumors were unacceptable means of getting attention: what teachers these days call "bad attention".
I think there needs to be a revolution. I was talking with a friend a few weeks ago about how no one overthrows their governments anymore. What's up with that? They're royally screwing the people of this country, even this world, and we're sitting around letting it happen.
Someone needs to check these fools.
Drudgereport retracted this one quickly, and replaced it with a 'flashback' to Gore's attendance of a UN Global Warming Conference.
Whatever happens, don't forget that DrudgeReport is a tabloid, and Drudge's 'exclusives' are about as reliable as... well dang, who can we count on in the media anymore?
All "News" sites are tabloids in one way or another. Every newspaper or TV news station is first and foremost a business. They all have self-interest as their starting point. Never trust any single source. I am a conservative but I never trust conservative sources any more than liberal ones. They all have an opinion. If one news site has a story that no one else is covering, I am immediately suspicious. It is so hard these days to remain informed about what is happening in the world because the news business is a huge house of mirrors. Gone are the days of "one stop shopping" for anything. Of course, don't take my word for it...
"Every newspaper or TV news station is first and foremost a business." The _St. Pete Times_ is easily the best paper in FL. It's a non-profit and thereby trusted a lot more than most. Not that they don't operate it like a business like many other non-profits (they own the St. Pete Times Forum [sports stadium] after all). Just a slight correction on the above reader's comment.
CC, I did not mean to suggest that all news papers are profit driven, just that they have a self interest and therefore a subjective point of view. Non-Profits are still businesses. After your description of St. Pete Times, I will definately have to check it out. Thanks!