NYT Lends Credibility To The Launch Of Swift Boater’s Latest Pollution-Funded Science-Denying Venture
NYT Lends Credibility To The Launch Of Swift Boater’s Latest Pollution-Funded Science-Denying Venture
In today’s New York Times, reporter Leslie Kaufman profiles Sen. James Inhofe’s (R-OK) former climate change skeptic spokesman, Marc Morano, and the launch of his latest effort to distort and deny the science of climate change, ClimateDepot.com. Joe Romm responded at Climate Progress, “[T]he paper of record has decided to promote the new disinformation campaign of the least credible global warming denier in the country.”
It’s not entirely clear why Kaufman would give Morano such credulous treatment. As Kaufman herself points out, Morano began his career as a “reporter” for Rush Limbaugh, later launched the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign smearing Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), and most recently earned $134,000 a year distributing false and inaccurate press releases for climate change denier Inhofe.
The Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson recently explained that under Inhofe, Morano constructed a “global warming denier propaganda machine.” More recently, Johnson explained that Morano will use that machine to power and promote his new venture. Still, Kaufman seems to suggest that Morano’s work on climate science is credible and even award-winning:
Mr. Morano is proud of his work, which he says is not advocacy but truth seeking.
“Even in the Senate, I’d put up any of the stories we did against any pablum Time or Newsweek has put out on global warming,” he said. “We’d link to the other side; we’d present their arguments. They do one-sided screeds.”
In 2007, he points out, the Republican Web site of Mr. Inhofe’s committee won an award from the independent Congressional Management Foundation.
Kaufman fails to note, however, that the criteria used by the Congressional Management Foundation to award Inhofe’s committee website its “Gold Mouse” award does not factor in the accuracy of the material presented. Rather, the group’s award focuses on issues related to website design and usability.
Morano’s new site, which is a part of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), as aims to “serve as a ‘clearinghouse and one-stop shopping’ for climate and environmental news.” But CFACT is “part of the Scaife network of conservative front groups, supported by the Richard Mellon Scaife family fortune and corporations like Exxon Mobil.” As Johnson put it, “Climate Depot is sure to fit seamlessly into Morano’s alternate-reality right-wing universe of Newsbusters, the Drudge Report, and Glenn Beck.” If today’s article is any indicator, perhaps the New York Times is ready to go along as well.
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Nothing like having an old righty plutocrat SugarDaddy to keep your budget flush.
April 10th, 2009 at 1:14 pmWhen so much is at stake, and the facts so clear, why would this sort of thing not be criminal negligence?
April 10th, 2009 at 1:15 pmThis will get the trolls out of bed…
April 10th, 2009 at 1:24 pmDamned librul media and their socialist agenda!
April 10th, 2009 at 1:26 pm***
marc morano?
didn’t he play the gangster
on last week’s episode of
“law and order”?
_-_
April 10th, 2009 at 1:26 pmThe New York Times is ready to go away. No big loss at this rate.
April 10th, 2009 at 1:26 pmIf the GOP wingnuts would just focus on actual problems – rather than create distractions – we might be able to move to some solutions for critical issues. Their entire methodology is geared to throw dirt in the air and point to shiny objects. None fix our problems – just defer action for as later date. Global warming is not going to wait for humans to decide to act. It is on the march right now and our great grandchildren may not have a livable planet to inhabit. If we get this wrong, our planet dies. What is the problem here?
April 10th, 2009 at 1:29 pmA Rush Limbaugh ‘reporter’?
Hmmmm, what would that job description include?
-Speaking Spanish so you could score Oxycontin for Boss Hog
-Interviewing young Dominican Republic boys for sex with Boss Hog
-Shopping for XXXXXL clothes for Boss Hog
-Cleaning spittle off Boss Hog’s golden microphone
-Researching & providing lies for Boss Hog’s ’show’
-Buying black market Viagra for the Boss’s vacation trips
-Denying all of the above anytime it’s asked
April 10th, 2009 at 1:31 pmI think we could add Mr Morano’s face to this cartoon. ;)
April 10th, 2009 at 1:31 pmWhat if they had a site extolling the virtues of smoking tobacco?
What if they had a site encouraging people to eat lots of trans-fats?
Any site that encourages opinions that affect behavior and that may ultimately cost the lives of tens of thousands should be subject to law suits.
April 10th, 2009 at 1:32 pmSen. James Inhofe’s (R-OK) former climate change skeptic spokesman, Marc Morano
To paraphrase those illiterate wingnuts:
“Get a brain moranos!”
April 10th, 2009 at 1:36 pmZimzone Says:
A Rush Limbaugh ‘reporter’?
Hmmmm, what would that job description include?
-Speaking Spanish so you could score Oxycontin for Boss Hog
-Interviewing young Dominican Republic boys for sex with Boss Hog
-Shopping for XXXXXL clothes for Boss Hog
April 10th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
____________
So who does that make Morano? Roscoe P. Coltrane, or the gawky rookie one?
And who’s Flash, in this scenario?
April 10th, 2009 at 1:39 pmSpeaking of Inhofe, he should have been charged with treason already for slamming President Obama from Afghanistan.
What he said was inflammatory and untrue, of course. (Obama’s gutting our military while our soldiers are in harm’s way.)
Cheney & Inhofe would make great cellmates, eh?
April 10th, 2009 at 1:40 pmMorano’s new site, which is a part of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT)…
Which is not to be confused with other closely related group: the Committee Forming A Republican Tomorrow (CFART).
April 10th, 2009 at 1:41 pmStratRat Says:
It is on the march right now and our great grandchildren may not have a livable planet to inhabit. If we get this wrong, our planet dies. What is the problem here?
April 10th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
__________
Nah, our planet will be fine. It’ll just do what any living body does when infected with something harmful – rid itself of the infection. Once it eradicates the human cancer from the biosphere, it should return to normal in a few hundred thousand years or so.
April 10th, 2009 at 1:42 pmZimzone Says:
A Rush Limbaugh ‘reporter’?
Hmmmm, what would that job description include?
Um, I think it also includes that kicky gold bikini number that Carrie Fischer had to wear while chained to Jabba the Hut.
*shudder*
April 10th, 2009 at 1:47 pmbarracks9 Says:
Um, I think it also includes that kicky gold bikini number that Carrie Fischer had to wear while chained to Jabba the Hut.
*shudder*
April 10th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
_____________
Wow. It’s gonna take a fuckton of scotch to get THAT visual out of my head.
April 10th, 2009 at 1:53 pmUnfortunately you and I are in the minority to believe that one day the earth will shrug us like a cold.
More and more I think about it, the conditions in the book of revelations sound like the end result of man made climate catastrophe. Ironic how the people who most regard the rapture are the people pushing for the laws that are going to cause it =D.
I know I made an uneducated comment about the bible, but don’t religious people make goofy statements about science?
April 10th, 2009 at 2:00 pmLies and propaganda. The Reich-wing has nothing else. Facts and truth don’t support their policies.
April 10th, 2009 at 2:07 pmI read the article in the NYT by Liz Kaufman and I completely disagree that she (or the Times) is “shilling” for Morano. I thought it was very critical of him, and reporting on someone is hardly “shilling.”
April 10th, 2009 at 2:12 pmexecutive-editor@nytimes.com, vannatta@nytimes.com, tiwein@nytimes.com, weisman@nytimes.com, liptaka@nytimes.com, bobherb@nytimes.com, public@nytimes.com, dabrooks@nytimes.com, dakirk@nytimes.com, dasang@nytimes.com, editorial@nytimes.com, erschm@nytimes.com, febarr@nytimes.com, foreign@nytimes.com, justice@nytimes.com, cushman@nytimes.com, markoff@nytimes.com, letters@nytimes.com, nytnews@nytimes.com, managing-editor@nytimes.com, mossm@nytimes.com, national@nytimes.com, news-tips@nytimes.com, pekilb@nytimes.com, ropear@nytimes.com, rotone@nytimes.com, stolberg@nytimes.com, slabaton@nytimes.com, lewin@nytimes.com, tiwein@nytimes.com, washington@nytimes.com, safire@nytimes.com, executive-editor@nytimes.com, managing-editor@nytimes.com, president@nytimes.com, public@nytimes.com, nytnews@nytimes.com
April 10th, 2009 at 2:19 pmwinddancer Says:
I read the article in the NYT by Liz Kaufman and I completely disagree that she (or the Times) is “shilling” for Morano. I thought it was very critical of him, and reporting on someone is hardly “shilling.”
***
did her article mention anything
about his love affair with amy fisher?
***
poor mary jo morano.
:\
April 10th, 2009 at 2:21 pmThe earth has survived at least two major global catastrophes and it still keeps chugging along.
The first biggie cleared out the dinosaurs.
Is mankind next?
April 10th, 2009 at 2:24 pmwinddancer Says:
I read the article in the NYT by Liz Kaufman and I completely disagree that she (or the Times) is “shilling” for Morano. I thought it was very critical of him, and reporting on someone is hardly “shilling.”
I wouldn’t call the piece “very critical”, but I have to agree that “shilling” by either the NYT or Kaufman is a poor description.
April 10th, 2009 at 2:24 pmI’d have to agree.
April 10th, 2009 at 2:27 pmHas anyone else looked at the climate depot site – it is terrible. 3 columns of headlines for all sorts of wild stories.
I could possibly see the headline “I command thee ? Obama may block sun’s rays…..” Which links to a Fox news item of this header. At least that is about the climate although it takes a reasonable scientific idea and makes it sound like Obama is some sort of Moses parting the Red Sea.
But then there is a headline that Pet Shop Boys have refused a PETA request to rename themselves Rescue Shelter Boys. Not only an obvious headline based on a publicity stunt, but how does this link to the environment at all ? Not to mention headlines debunking a shampoo-cancer link, and linking vegeterianism as an eating disorder.
And then there are the blatant distortions – several items on Artic Sea Ice being the greatest in 30 years and Artic Sea Ice 30% above normal (well I guess if “Normal” is defined as the amount on the equator, they may be on to something.)
April 10th, 2009 at 2:36 pm23. Hoodathunk,
You reminded me of a cartoon of the earth talking to another planet. Punch line was that the earth was scratching to get rid of the parasites on its surface.
April 10th, 2009 at 2:37 pmThe freaks think that Jesus will Rapture them before the planet gets too nasty. What’s to worry about?
They are still pissed off to see redwood forests, what good is a redwood after Jebus smokes the planet? Such a waste, would have made great decking at the ocean cottage.
April 10th, 2009 at 2:46 pmThis type of thing is exactly why we won’t support even the New York Times. We stopped buying our own regional paper – the Chicago Tribune over ten years ago. We were tired of the self-serving, rapacious, reich-wing swill they’d been force feeding us for DECADES.
I’m not interested in reading corporate sponsored propaganda thank you very much. They won’t get our patronage. Let them all die.
April 10th, 2009 at 2:50 pm*
What is it about science that repugs cannot grasp? They deny evolution, and with it, carbon dating; they believe Adam and Eve lived with the dinosaurs; they deny global climate change when scientists have been reporting on serious changes time and time again.
April 10th, 2009 at 5:04 pmThey confuse climate change with weather — they don’t know that severe weather changes are also indicators of climate change.
Repugs are willfully ignorant and they intend to keep their followers ignorant also — I think they really fear an educated public.
30 Marie said, “What is it about science that repugs cannot grasp?”
Uh truth, logic, rational inquiry, pursuit of truth over dogma, …….
Give me a minute and I’m sure I can think of the answer.
April 10th, 2009 at 6:04 pmAnother group of RepubliCon stooges. Swift boaters are unpatriotic buffoons.
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April 18th, 2009 at 5:40 amsac ekimi