No Questions On Global Warming Asked At CNN’s Coal Industry-Sponsored Presidential Debates
No Questions On Global Warming Asked At CNN’s Coal Industry-Sponsored Presidential Debates
In Democratic presidential debate last night, CNN once again failed to ask any questions about global warming. Perhaps not surprisingly, last night’s debate was sponsored by the coal front group Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC). Watch an ad for the debate:
ABEC also co-sponsored November’s CNN/YouTube debates in Nevada and Florida, at which no questions about global warming were asked.
These debate sponsorships are part of the coal industry’s aggressive “$35 million campaign in primary and caucus states to rally public support for coal-fired electricity and to fuel opposition to legislation that Congress is crafting to slow climate change.” ABEC has spent $1.3 million alone “on billboard, newspaper, television and radio ads in Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina.”
What is ABEC receiving in return for its support of CNN’s debate? Besides branding on tv and newspaper ads, ThinkProgress has learned that at November’s Democratic debate in Nevada, ABEC was given a special area near the debate’s entrance to hand out “clean coal” brochures. No other organizations were allowed to distribute materials in that prime area.
UPDATE: DeSmogBlog has also obtained an ABEC request for proposals for PR assistance in Nevada, in which it hopes to “image and credibility of ABEC” and increase “public awareness of the importance of coal to America’s energy mix.” One of the key ways it hopes to achieve these goals is through a “comprehensive presidential outreach program.”
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Why should the candidates answer questions on subjects they know nothing about?
Oh! Wait a minute!! Never mind.
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:21 pmThey could have at least asked about old plants vs. new plants in Texas.
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:22 pm*What* a surprise.
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:35 pmAs the 1983 American Heritage Dictionary noted, fascism is: “A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism.” (The US dictionary definition has gotten somewhat squishier since then, as all the larger dictionary companies have been bought up by multinational corporations.)
Mussolini was quite straightforward about all this. In a 1923 pamphlet titled “The Doctrine of Fascism” he wrote, “If classical liberalism spells individualism, Fascism spells government.” But not a government of, by, and for We The People – instead, it would be a government of, by, and for the most powerful corporate interests in the nation.
It seems that facism more resembles bush policy that islamic theocracy…
Here is the 14-point Britt definition as posted some months ago…
Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism – Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights – Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause – The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military – Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism – The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
6. Controlled Mass Media – Sometimes, media is directly controlled by the government. But in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security – Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined – Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected – The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed – Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts – Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment – Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption – Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections – Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:36 pm“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when
everything the American public believes is false.”
– William Casey, CIA Director (from first staff meeting, 1981)
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:37 pmMedia ownership study ordered destroyed
Sept 14, 2006
‘Every last piece’ destroyed
Adam Candeub, now a law professor at Michigan State University, said senior managers at the agency ordered that “every last piece” of the report be destroyed. “The whole project was just stopped – end of discussion,” he said. Candeub was a lawyer in the FCC’s Media Bureau at the time the report was written and communicated frequently with its authors, he said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14836500/
“You can’t tell any more the difference between what’s propaganda and what’s news.”
FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:37 pm15 August, 2006
good lookin’ out, TP
i noticed that myself….
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:40 pmHmmm, it was a Dem debate. I’m surprised they didn’t raise this issue themselves… at the debate, before or after.
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:40 pmAnd now for a small break from Plunger’s megaposts…
Hillary and Barack were adding plenty of hot air to the atmosphere last night.
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:41 pmNo Questions On Global Warming Asked At CNN’s Coal Industry-Sponsored Presidential Debates
Ya think?
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:49 pm“Clean Coal”….. Feh! Oxymoron of the highest degree.
Coal’s the friggin’ dirtiest (and most CO2-producing) fuel around.
Cheers,
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:55 pmYes, this is a sad state of affairs.
Why the hell do we need our debates sponsered in the first place. Whats next? Selling the naming right to the White House?
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:11 pmDon’t you know Repukian Christofascist logic? Coal doesn’t pollute, TREEs pollute.
Bush/Cheney
Hague Trials ‘09
Buck Fush
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:12 pm#12, kinda like the GM/GE/Walmart/BancCorp/ ShitforBrainsBowl.
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:45 pm…CNN once again failed to ask any questions about global warming.
Whoda thunk it?
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:11 pm23 million in contributions trumps all citizens wishes…everytime. Villagers have no shame. Like Biden. He sounds like the guy you want for president and a beer drinking buddy. Perfect on paper, except for the part where he is a hit man for big banks and finance.
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:22 pmI bring him up just because his flaw is simple. The whoring of the survivors is much grosser. This election cycle is like a reverse Truman Show. We are all being played like Truman for an audience of the big money boys.
Edwards stopped playing by the rules, so his megaphone is turned off.
That’s really to bad. They could have asked Obama why he’s supporting coal-to-liquids technology, only initiative previously by the Nazi and South African Apartheid regimes.
CTL is really bad for global warming and Obama is a Senate leader for it.
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:40 pmUgh. Let me try that again.
That’s really to bad. They could have asked Obama why he’s supporting coal-to-liquids technology, only initiatied previously by the Nazi and South African Apartheid regimes.
Coal-to-liquids is really bad for global warming and Obama is a Senate leader for it.
But, hey, one more chance for the Obamites to triangulate and then play holier than thou.
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:42 pm“Clean Coal”? Coal is a black dirty substance and can never be called clean in any way. Touch the stuff and your hands are black. Burn it and it releases vaporized mercury into the air you breath.
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:28 pmWhen you have coal industry forking out big money to such front groups as ” Americans for Balanced Energy Choices”. As a mine owner or CEO you have to cut costs somewhere to afford these expenditures.
The cash cannot come out of the CEO’s pay or the owners profits.
I know, cut safety items in the coal mines and make the miners pay portions of their health care that they will be responsible using that health care and trim wages and downsize the work force.
They probably fund Rush’s show to stay on the air as well.
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:40 am.
CORPORATE MEDIA holding a debate between Presidential candidates.
CONGLOMERATES sponsoring that debate of Presidential candidates.
Presidential candidates arguing over who is the better CORPORATE CEO.
CORPRATISM = FASCISM!
.
January 23rd, 2008 at 3:05 amWe are so screwed. It is very discouraging.
January 23rd, 2008 at 1:52 pmIs there any way to embed this video onto another site? This absurdity needs to be spread…
January 25th, 2008 at 10:16 amWhile we are flattered that there are some people out there who are convinced we can dictate the questions of the debate, the reality is we are merely a sponsor of advertising for the program. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. Just as purchasing an ad in a newspaper doesn’t skew the editorial content of that paper, the same is true here.
Rather than try to keep the issue of climate policy from coming up, as some folks have suggested we are doing, we are putting our effort to ensure that the issue does come up on the campaign trail. In fact, here’s the question we’d love to see get asked in one of the debates: “How do you plan to help America meet its growing demand for affordable and reliable electricity while addressing the climate change issue?â€
Isn’t that the question we’re all asking?
Sure, you can have a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; but if your plan means that America becomes more reliant on foreign energy resources and the cost of energy skyrockets, what kind of solution is that for the country?
We recognize that there is a shared commitment between electricity generators and those that they serve to reduce utility greenhouse gas emissions. The conversation now is about how best to do that in a way that meets the stated environmental goal, protects access to affordable, reliable energy and ensures energy security.
So let’s be as clear as possible — not only do we want the candidates to address questions regarding energy, environment and the economy, we can’t think of single more important question in the 2008 presidential debates.
January 25th, 2008 at 4:11 pm