Pay No Attention to the Scandal In Front of Your Face
"Those who doubt that manmade greenhouse gases are changing the climate say these e-mails from Britain's University of East Anglia show climate scientists massaging data and suppressing studies by those who disagree....Some think the e-mails will have the greatest impact in Washington, giving politicians from coal and oil-producing states another reason to delay taking action to reduce emissions. The government's leading scientist told Congress there is no time to lose."
- Environmental affairs correspondent Anne Thompson, Dec. 4 NBC Nightly News.
"Does this controversy change the science? A team of explorers will present findings on Arctic ice melt in Copenhagen, findings that have nothing to do with the e-mails....Beyond just the lack of summer sea ice, scientists also point to some other things happening around the planet. The increased melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, earlier springs....All of those things are certain things that are happening, that they say it doesn't matter what's in those e-mails - the Earth is changing."
- Thompson on NBC's Today, December 7.
Correspondent Wyatt Andrews: "To many Republicans, Climategate proves that global warming is a deception....But if that's true, it's a fraud adopted by most of the world's leading scientists, along with NASA, the U.N., the American Medical Association, and the National Academies of Science of 32 countries, including the United States. To most of them, Climategate is a sideshow compared to one overwhelming fact:"
Professor Michael Mann: "The last decade is the warmest decade on record."
- CBS Evening News, December 9.
"Global warming naysayers are claiming that e-mails stolen from this research university show climate scientists discussing how to fudge results to promote the idea that humans are altering the planet....[But] the science is solid, according to a vast majority of researchers, with hotter temperatures, melting glaciers, and rising sea level providing the proof."
- ABC correspondent Clayton Sandell on World News, December 6.
Correspondent Bob Woodruff: "Climate change deniers say these e-mails are proof humans aren't causing global warming. U.S. officials say the evidence proves otherwise."
Jonathan Pershing, Chief U.S. negotiator: "The science is incredibly robust, and as we look forward, I worry much, much more about not acting urgently than I do about what will ultimately be a small blip."
- ABC's World News, December 7.
Hyping "Life and Death" Battle vs. "Global Catastrophe"
"Facing a clock some say has ticked down to zero, today 192 nations came together to take on a potential global catastrophe."
- ABC's Bob Woodruff on World News, December 7.
"This is about life or death - 192 countries are here in Copenhagen to cut the carbon emissions changing the climate and threatening the very existence of some nations and their people."
- NBC's Anne Thompson on Nightly News, December 7.
CBS Correspondent Goes Diving for Drivel
"No place in the Maldives [Islands] is higher than 7 feet, ten inches above sea level. Eighty percent of the land lies three feet or less above the waves - and sea levels are predicted to rise by as much as 23 inches this century, according to the UN's climate change panel. Other, more recent studies using newer data have warned the world's oceans may rise even higher. Even the least bad scenario for sea level rise would have the place looking like this [standing in water up to his ankles]. Worse predictions would have the place looking like this [water up to his waist]. Or worst of all [Phillips plunges his head under water] like this....The Maldives have become the canary in the global warming coal mine."
- CBS's Mark Phillips on the December 7 Evening News. [Audio/video (0:49): Windows Media [1] | MP3 audio [2]]
Brain Dead Americans Refuse to Believe Our Spin
"Despite growing scientific evidence that humans are to blame for warming the planet - rising sea level, melting glaciers, more intense droughts - polls show the number of Americans who believe global warming is happening is at its lowest point in 12 years."
- ABC's Clayton Sandell on Good Morning America, December 6.
"To a psychologist, climate change looks as if it was designed to be ignored....Psychologists studying the issue say that the now-familiar warnings about climate change kick at emotional dead spots in all human brains - but especially in American brains....One U.S. researcher thought television is to blame: All those TV ads have made Americans more focused on their own wants, she theorized, and less likely to care about the long-term good."
- The Washington Post's David Fahrenthold writing in the paper's "Health & Science [3]" section December 8.
Matthews: West Point Academy = "the Enemy Camp"
"I didn't see a lot of warmth in that crowd out there that the President chose to address tonight. And I thought that that was interesting. He went to, maybe, the enemy camp tonight to make his case. I mean, that is - that's where Paul Wolfowitz used to write speeches for - back in the old Bush days - that's where he went to rabble rouse the 'We're going to democratize the world' campaign back in '02. So, I thought it was a strange venue."
- MSNBC's Chris Matthews during live coverage following President Obama's speech at West Point, December 1. Matthews apologized the following evening. [Audio/video (0:34): Windows Media [4] | MP3 audio [5]]
Diane Hits White House from the Left
"Is this the last time the President is going to ask for American troops from the American people?...What about the cost of the war? What do you say to members of the Democratic Party, the President's own party, who say we simply cannot afford this $100 billion cost?"
- ABC's Diane Sawyer to White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Good Morning America, December 1.
Abu Ghraib: The "Startling Scoop" of the Decade
"It has been more than five years since our report first made public the abuses underway at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison....Back then, we all needed awakening to what was being done in our names....Abu Ghraib has opened our eyes, serving as a dark icon that reminds us our fiercest enemies - hubris, cruelty, and ignorance - wage war from within."
- Ex-CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather writing up Newsweek's choice for the #1 "Startling Scoop [6]" of the decade, as published on the magazine's 20/10 Web project.
Even Chris Admits: Media Refs "Calling all the Plays" for Obama
Clip of President Obama: "I noticed the press yesterday, because we had this jobs forum at the White House, they said 'Obama's finally pivoting to jobs.' As if what we haven't been doing for the whole nine months from the day I was sworn in and we started talking about the recovery, it was all about jobs...."
Host Chris Matthews: "Why would you ride the ref when he's calling all the plays for you? What's he out there bashing the media for?"
- MSNBC's Hardball, December 4. [Audio/video (0:34): Windows Media [7] | MP3 audio [8]]
CBS Touts "Historic Week" of Obama Photo-Ops
"White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel says this will be an 'historic week in an already historic year,' with the Afghanistan decision, the Senate opening debate today on a health care reform bill, and the President's schedule jam packed....Tomorrow night the President shares his Afghan strategy with the nation in that prime time address from West Point. Later in the week, he takes on a battle closer to home: job creation. As unemployment hovers above 10 percent, the President will host a job summit of business and labor leaders at the White House."
- CBS's Katie Couric on the November 30 Evening News.
Touting Harry Reid's "Sober" Slam of GOP as Racists
Co-host Harry Smith: "[Senate Democratic leader] Harry Reid said Republicans are on the wrong side of history when it comes to this health care bill and very soberly yesterday he compared those who opposed health care to those who opposed civil rights legislation and other important acts throughout history. How would you respond to that?"
Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele: "Well, you know, it was not a sober moment for Harry Reid at all. It was an ignorant moment for Harry Reid."
- CBS's The Early Show, December 8. [Audio/video (0:42): Windows Media [9] | MP3 audio [10]]
"No Scandal" in Democrat's Push to Elevate Girlfriend?
Host Howard Kurtz: "He [Senator Max Baucus] recommended to be the U.S. attorney, the top federal prosecutor in his home state of Montana, his girlfriend, a woman who had been on his Senate payroll....I watched CNN all day yesterday. I didn't see any mention of this story, which I thought was a stunning lapse in judgment. Why isn't this a bigger story?"
CBS's Chip Reid: "Well, I don't think it has legs because there's no sex scandal, and it's not like Vitter. It's not like Ensign. There's no scandal here...."
Kurtz: "Wait a minute. Baucus was married, okay, he was separated....He has this relationship with a woman on his Senate payroll, and he pushes her for a top job in the Justice Department. Why would that not be a scandal?"
Reid: "Because there's a long history of Senators nominating people they are very close to for U.S. attorney."
- Exchange on CNN's Reliable Sources, December 6.
NBC Anchor Rhapsodizes Over Lefty Comic
"In just the span of a short few years, [Comedy Central's The Daily Show host] Jon Stewart has gone from optional to indispensable....The old arc of a news story went like this: News happens. Media cover news. Audience reacts, then turns in for the night. For the past several years, however, there's been another step added to the end of the process: being held to account for our faults by a comedy show with a sharp eye and a sharp tongue. How did we live without it?"
- NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams lauding Stewart as one of the decade's "Thought Leaders [11]" for Newsweek's 20/10 Web project.
Barack Obama: "An Evolutionary Flash Point for Humanity"
"It's a fantastic historical event, you know. Barack Obama as a person is a fantastic individual, but Barack Obama as an idea marks an evolutionary flash point for humanity, you know. So it's something that we absolutely, positively had to be a part of."
- Actor Will Smith, co-host of the Nobel Peace Prize Concert, on CNN's The Situation Room, December 10. [Audio/video (0:34): Windows Media [12] | MP3 audio [13]]
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