Iwo Jima Vets Blast TIME's 'Special Environmental Issue' Cover

For only the second time in 85 years, TIME magazine abandoned the traditional red border it uses on its cover. The occasion – to push more global warming alarmism.

The cover of the April 21 issue of TIME took the famous Iwo Jima photograph by Joe Rosenthal of the Marines raising the American flag and replaced the flag with a tree. The cover story by Bryan Walsh calls green “the new red, white and blue.” [2]

Donald Mates, an Iwo Jima veteran, told the Business & Media Institute on April 17 that using that photograph for that cause was a “disgrace.”

<?xml:namespace prefix = v ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" /><?xml:namespace prefix = w ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" />“It's an absolute disgrace,” Mates said. “Whoever did it is going to hell. That's a mortal sin. God forbid he runs into a Marine that was an Iwo Jima survivor.”

Mates also said making the comparison of World War II to global warming was erroneous and disrespectful.

“The second world war we knew was there,” Mates said. “There's a big discussion. Some say there is global warming, some say there isn't. And to stick a tree in place of a flag on the Iwo Jima picture is just sacrilegious.”

According to the American Veterans Center [3] (AVC), Mates served in the 3rd Marine Division and fought in the battle of Iwo Jima, landing on Feb. 24, 1945. 

“A few days later, Mates' eight-man patrol came under heavy assault from Japanese forces,” Tim Holbert, a spokesman for the AVC, said. “During fierce-hand-to-hand combat, Mates watched as his friend and fellow Marine, Jimmy Trimble, was killed in front of his eyes. Mates was severely wounded, and underwent repeated operations for shrapnel removal for over 30 years.”

Lt. John Keith Wells, the leader of the platoon that raised the flags on Mt. Suribachi and co-author of “Give Me Fifty Marines Not Afraid to Die: Iwo Jima” [4] wasn't impressed with TIME's efforts.

“That global warming is the biggest joke I've ever known,” Wells told the Business & Media Institute. “[W]e'll stick a dadgum tree up somebody's rear if they want that and think that's going to cure something.”

TIME managing editor Richard Stengel appeared on MSNBC April 17 and said the United States needed to make a major effort to fight climate change, and that the cover's purpose was to liken global warming to World War II.

“[O]ne of the things we do in the story is we say there needs to be an effort along the lines of preparing for World War II to combat global warming and climate change,” Stengel said. “It seems to me that this is an issue that is very popular with the voters, makes a lot of sense to them and a candidate who can actually bundle it up in some grand way and say, 'Look, we need a national and international Manhattan Project to solve this problem and my candidacy involves that.' I don't understand why they don't do that.”

Holbert, speaking on behalf of the American Veterans Center [3], said the editorial decision by TIME to use the photograph for the cover trivialized the cause the veterans fought for.

“Global warming may or may not be a significant threat to the United States,” Holbert said. “The Japanese Empire in February of 1945, however, certainly was, and this photo trivializes the most recognizable moment of one of the bloodiest battles in U.S. history.  War analogies should be used sparingly by political advocates of all bents.”

Stengel also appeared on MSNBC's “Morning Joe” on April 17 [5] and had no difficulty admitting the magazine needed to have a “point of view.”

    

“I think since I've been back at the magazine, I have felt that one of the things that's needed in journalism is that you have to have a point of view about things,” Stengel said. “You can't always just say 'on the one hand, on the other' and you decide. People trust us to make decisions. We're experts in what we do. So I thought, you know what, if we really feel strongly about something let's just say so.”

TIME has been banging the global warming drum for some time now. In April 2007, TIME offered 51 ways to “save the planet,” [6] which included more taxes and regulation.

Related Links: 

 

A Special Report from BMI: Global Warming Censored [7]

BMI's Special Report "Fire & Ice: Journalists have warned of climate change for 100 years, but can't decide weather we face an ice or warming" [8]

Climate of Bias: [9] BMI's page devoted entirely to global warming and climate change in the media.