Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Bulletin from the complicit media: A denial of factual reality isn't worth a headline

What I have noticed most about the de facto state media is its gift for spinning on behalf of the leader.

Yesterday, for instance, President Bush was asked again about global warming, and in reply he acknowledged to reporters that global warming is indeed "a serious problem." He then insisted, however, that "there is a debate over whether it's manmade or naturally caused." The Drudge Report came to his rescue, but more on that in a minute.

This "debate" line is one of the president's most fascinating talking points, especially considering the fact that the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Sciences (in conjunction with its counterparts in Britain, China, Germany, and Japan), the American Geophysical Union, the American Meterological Society, the National Climactic Data Center, 928 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and Bush's own Climate Change Science Program have all concluded that man's role is irrefutable and that no such "debate" exists any longer. And now we have word that even Frank Luntz, the GOP pollster/strategist who used to counsel Republicans on how to play up the "debate" angle, has officially defected to the other side. He told Canadian television last night: "It’s now 2006. Now I think most people would conclude that there is global warming taking place, and that the behavior of humans are affecting the climate."

Anyway, back to Bush's statement that global warming is serious, but that a "debate" about man's role continues: The first part of his remark, viewed in isolation, suggests that Bush is sensitive to the environment; the second part of his remark suggests that he sides with the alternative universe financed by the oil and energy industries. So today the right-leaning Drudge Report stresses part one, and scrubs part two.

The headline today on its home page:
"Bush: Climate Change is Serious Problem."