BY DAN
KENNEDY
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Monday, June 07, 2004
MODIFIED LIMITED HANGOUT.
The Boston Globe came half-clean yesterday in the matter of
that James M. Taylor column
seeking to debunk global warming. The paper published
a letter from Harvard professor John P. Holdren noting that Taylor's
professional affiliation, Environment & Climate News, is
"a publication of the ultra-conservative, antiregulation Heartland
Institute, where Taylor works."
That's good as far as it goes. But
as Media Log revealed
last week, the Heartland Institute isn't just a right-wing
think tank - it also includes among its directors current and retired
officials of such oil- and automobile-industry giants as ExxonMobil,
Amoco, and General Motors, companies that directly benefit from any
seeds of doubt they are able to sow with regard to global
warming.
If the Globe wants to run
stuff from right-wing organizations, that's its business. But if it
publishes propaganda bought and paid for by industry, it has an
obligation to disclose that to its readers. (Actually, it shouldn't
run such garbage in the first place. And yes, there are some
perfectly respectable scientists it could turn to for an independent
anti-global-warming perspective.)
The Globe still owes an
apology to its readers.
ANOTHER SIDE OF REAGAN.
Check out Greg Palast's Ronald Reagan obituary.
The headline: "Killer, Coward, Con-Man; Good Riddance, Gipper ...
More Proof Only the Good Die Young." It lacks the mythic sweep of
Hunter Thompson's kiss-off
to Richard Nixon. But there's nothing in Palast's screed that's even
remotely inaccurate.
Good grief. If it were me I would
have waited a week, but what the hell.
posted at 9:13 AM |
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Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
