Some my have noted that I will, on occasion, reference a post by David Roberts at Gristmill. He has a guest blogger role at Vanity Fair (Green Beat) going on and today's makes an interesting point about Global Warming and the Media. The short piece is here:
But is is worth posting in it's entirety.
What I Learned from the Mainstream Media About Global WarmingWell so much for Roberts' opinion. Now, where you you put Vanity Fair in the list of Green publications? Well, they did put out a Green Issue with a photo of Madonna on the cover. Huh?
1. Efforts to address climate change will be enormously expensive, and will raise costs for ordinary families.
2. Politicians are B.S.’ing about it; none of them will tell the honest truth about the enormous costs.
3. Everything we’re currently doing to address the problem is utterly futile.
4. Most solutions, like driving a Prius, are mere affectations of do-gooding elites.
5. The public doesn’t care about global warming; they find it dispiriting and disempowering.
What nobody in the mainstream media ever seems to do is pause and wonder whether their relentless repetition of points 1–4 has anything to do with point 5.
(For the record—and more on this later—No. 1 is false. Nos. 2 and 3 are half-true. No. 4 is false. No. 5 is about 75 percent true.)
On the other hand, Vanity Fair does do some good investigative reporting and this week's story entitled "Monsanto's Harvest of Fear" should be required reading.
Still, going back to David Roberts and the Green Beat, it seems that Vanity Fair is convinced you have to use celebrity to sell everything. e.g. the following:
- Cindy Crawford: The Power of Eco-Moms
- Q&A: Ed Norton Turns Green (Actually, He Always Has Been)
- Cindy Crawford: How You Can Make a Difference on Earth Day
- Green Beat: Will the Rothbury Festival Outdo Live Earth? By Adam Spangler
(Posted earlier today to EcoAction Committee Email List.)
