Category Archives: press issues

The political pundits of this fall have not forgotten last year’s biggest news event, it appears, as they’re comparing the upcoming mid-term elections to a political Katrina: In the National Journal, Chuck Todd used athe metaphor to describe the Republican party: The GOP’s hurricane shutters are state of the art, but sometimes even "state ofContinue reading “Like a Hurricane — 2006”

I exaggerate, but not all that much. After many rounds of job cuts in the last ten years–and the elimination of numerous regional editions, such as the Ventura County edition, which is still missed–the corporation in Chicago fired the publisher in LA, Jeff Johnson, because he refused to cut an estimated 200 or more jobsContinue reading “New on the Endangered Species List: The LA Times”

A book written to be accessible to anyone over the age of ten, The North Pole Was Here, has a staffer for a prominent denier in the US Senate up in arms.

Not for what the book says–because the staffer appears not to have read it–but the fact that it was written by a reporter.

NYTTimes reporter Andrew Revkin published a straightforward but appealing you-are-here account of visiting the top of our home planet, where the air is thin, the "ground" is ice floating on the ocean, and everything is changing.

Here’s an excerpt from the first chapter:

Unlike the planet’s South Pole, where a continent is home to permanent research stations and dozens of scientists, engineers, cooks, doctors, and other staff, at the North Pole nothing is permanent except the seabed far below. The ice that is here today will be somewhere else tomorrow. In a few years, much of what I am walking on, what our airplane landed on, will break up and slide out of the Arctic Ocean altogether through passages around Greenland, replaced by newly formed ice. A while ago, a visitor left a message in a container on the ice near this spot. It was found on a beach in Ireland a few years later.

Amazingly, this factual account has alarmed Marc Morano, a communications director for Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma). Marc Morano, formerly with The Rush Limbaugh Show, and the first in the media to publicize the attacks of the Swift Boat veterans, has now attacked New York Times’ reporter Andrew Revkin.

According to a story broken by Greenwire (reg. required) on Wednesday, Morano called into doubt the twenty years of Revkin’s reporting on climate change issues, because "sales of Revkin’s book…would be enhanced by his paper’s coverage of climate."

Morano said: "We’re not just shooting arrows."

Yesterday also saw the revelation in the NYTimes that NASA has altered its credo, removing the first line–"To alter and protect the home planet"–perhaps because prominent climate researcher James Hansen pointed to that phrase when insisting on the right to speak up on the hazard to the planet and our way of life from global warming.

Given this somewhat crazy state of affairs, Gristmill asked Revkin to answer a few questions, to which he graciously responded.

My favorite Washington reporter is the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank, because he refuses to take anyone too seriously–especially those who take themselves very, very seriously. Yesterday he reminded me of the great-but-almost-forgotten novelist Thomas Pynchon, who once wrote a brilliant novel–"V"–around the concept of "Wha?" as in "Cafe Wha?" Except that today, it’s our leadersContinue reading “Waah’s Up at Homeland Security”

Readers of this blog or the NY Times already know how much trouble James Hansen has had recently trying to talk in public about global warming under the Bush administration, but last night "60 Minutes" retold the story of James Hansen’s muzzling for a television audience, and well, calling it "Rewriting the Science." Hansen toldContinue reading ““A Recipe for Disaster” Says Hansen…on “60 Minutes””

After persistent prodding by Chris Mooney, the White House press corps recently actually asked a question to the Bush administration on the subject of anthropogenic global warming. Predictably, spokesman Scott McClellan gave a non-answer: I’m not going to get into talking about private meetings [Bush has] had, but look at the initiatives we’ve outlined, lookContinue reading “White House: Climate Change “Private” Matter”

The Wall Street Journal is known for its tight focus on the issues of interest to American businessmen, and for the seriousness of its reporting, which doesn’t even allow for photographs on the front page. But when it comes to climate change, the editorial side of the paper seems to go a little crazy. InContinue reading “That Wacky, Wacky Wall St. Journal”

Don’t know why it is, but in the last couple of months the LATimes (reg. required) has been shockingly good on Saturdays. Maybe it’s just a quirk, or maybe this is where they park the enviro/science stories. Who knows, but here are four examples from today, with a crucial line from each: *    AContinue reading “If It’s Saturday, the LATimes Must Be Kicking Butt”

Last week Adam Browning in the invaluable Gristmill alerted me to a column by veteran Washington Post writer David Ignatius, who thoughtfully looked at the trouble reporters are having reporting on climate change: One of the puzzles if you’re in the news business is figuring out what’s "news." The fate of your local football teamContinue reading ““A Human Folly Beyond Imagining” of the White House Press Corps”

One of the stereotypical complaints about environmentalists is that they are all "gloom and doom." The fact that there is some truth to this frustrates me. I think that part of this derisive statement comes out of the fact that enviros actually do care about the planet more than a lot of folks, and soContinue reading “Random Positive Post”