Shane Smith, CEO of the online news site Vice [1], has bought into the lefty claims of climate change as he alarmingly warned it’s a "gun to our heads" and likened it to "nuclear war." The journalist and co-founder of Vice came on Thursday’s edition of PBS’s Charlie Rose show to promote his partnership with HBO [2] and told the CBS This Morning host he doesn’t think there are “two-sides” to the climate change story.
When asked by Rose if he was sensitive to criticism that his site was prone to sensationalism, Smith responded he’s more worried about being “guilty of the opposite,” especially when it comes to issues like nuclear war or environmental change:
And I think that we’re guilty a lot of times of not sensationalizing. I think we’re guilty of the opposite. I think, look here’s a serious problem, but it could be this or it could be that, we’re gonna look at both sides and we’ll see. And you’re like, hold on a second. If you’re talking about climate change, if you’re talking about a gun to our heads, you know, environmentally. If you’re talking about the potential threat of nuclear war, that should be, you know, a punch in the face.
Smith actually told Forbes [3]magazine he has “problems” with socialism but it’s clear he believes the leftist rhetoric on global warming.
The following is the relevant exchange as it was aired on the May 24 edition of PBS’s Charlie Rose show:
CHARLIE ROSE: Now I could sort of tick off some of the things that people say about you.
SHANE SMITH, VICE CEO: Sure.
ROSE: And you know them all, though.
SMITH: Yeah.
ROSE: Does any of them bother you?
SMITH, VICE CEO: No.
ROSE: I mean, he sensationalizes everything.
SMITH: No.
ROSE: You know it’s more sensational than real content. It’s more this than that. None of that. And your retort to that is A.) I’ve heard it all before. And, B.) it is true or not true?
SMITH: I mean when we first started Vice-
ROSE: Meaning it doesn’t matter to...
SMITH: Sure. Yeah, when it first, when we first started Vice we wanted people to either love us or to hate us. We just didn’t want to be middle of the road, sort of c-minus. And we come from Canada which is-
ROSE: Hate us or love us, but don’t be indifferent.
SMITH: Exactly. And so we’ve been the subject of criticism since we began so I’m not, I’m not afraid of it. You know look what we like to do with a story -- and we say this -- is I want it to punch you in the face. I want it to be - you know if at the water cooler or at school or at the bar or whatever it is, I want you talking.
ROSE: Did you see that?
SMITH: Did you see that? Can you believe that? And I think that we’re guilty a lot of times of not sensationalizing. I think we’re guilty of the opposite. I think, look here’s a serious problem, but it could be this or it could be that, we’re gonna look at both sides and we’ll see. And you’re like hold on a second. If you’re talking about climate change, if you’re talking about a gun to our heads, you know, environmentally. If you’re talking about the potential threat of nuclear war, that should be, you know, a punch in the face.
ROSE: Yeah.
SMITH: That should be, like, what, what are we doing?
ROSE: It’s that serious.
SMITH: You know where are all the adults?
-- Geoffrey Dickens is the Deputy Research Director at the Media Research Center. Click here [4] to follow Geoffrey Dickens on Twitter.