He Said/She Said/Braindead

by digby


There has been a lot of discussion about the egregious coverage of the Gore Nobel prize in the Washington Post but I haven't heard much about this catch from Mediabloodhound:

So Al Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize today for his years of work on global climate change, and what does The New York Times decide to do?

Representative of the most shameless type of "Fair and Balanced" reporting, made popular by Fox News and long de rigeur in our mainstream press, The Times very prominently placed reader comments on the front page of its online edition - specifically, in sets of two directly beneath photos of Mr. Gore, giving two sides to an issue on which the scientific community has already reached a consensus: man has, and is, contributing to the warming of the planet and we must take substantive action before it's too late.

The Times ran this feature on its homepage for at least two and a half hours today, but possibly much longer. I noticed it around 10:30 a.m. By 1 p.m., The Times removed these dueling he said/she saids altogether and, much less conspicuously, placed the link "Share Your Thoughts | Read Comments" in the sixth and very last bullet under the photo (then of Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won along with Gore).

Here are just three different sets of these Foxified couplings

Beneath a photo captioned "Al and Tipper Gore at the Academy Awards in February":

Comment by Elmer Stobbe: "Junk science prevails, and the Pope of junk science is rewarded."

Comment by Ethan C.: "Nothing like a Nobel Peace Prize to tell the world that there's a real crisis."

Under a photo captioned "Al and Tipper Gore with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in September":

Comment by Liana: "You don't have to politically like Gore, but at least realize what he has done for global awareness of our enviornment [sic]!"

Comment by William: "Nobel is probably spinning in his grave....Another left wing triumph over science and logic."

Rotated comments beneath the same photo:

Comment by Michael Williams: "[Gore's] own actions and lifestyle are in contradiction to the policies/actions that his film supports."

Comment by James Law: "If Gore won't run, then Hillary must appoint him as the head of the E.P.A."


The screen shots are at the Mediabloodhound link.

I know that I don't need to explain that while everyone has free speech, the paper of record has no obligation in the name of "balance" to print lies or nonsense just because some bozo spews them. None of those critical comments were worthy, necessary or true.

Furthermore, climate change is simply not something you can discuss this way unless you feature the comments of tens of thousands of scientists who agree with Gore vs one or two who don't, most of whom work for big business. That would be an accurate representation of the "balance" on this issue.

The way this country's media reflexively treat Al Gore is disgusting. I don't know what kind of problems these people have with "the egghead" or "nerd" or whatever, but every time they do this stuff they reveal more about themselves than Gore. I've never seen anything like this --- even on a day when he wins one of the most prestigious honors in the world, they still behave like junior high school bitches. It's astounding.

I mean, come on:




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