Tag: time to wake up

For 49 weeks, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has spoken on the Senate floor about climate change. Last week he spoke about “manufactured doubt” and “the role of the media in all of this,” he said.

“We count in America on the press to report faithfully and accurately our changing world and to awaken the public to apparent mounting threats.”

“But what happens when the press fails in this role? What happens when the press stops being independent, when it becomes the bedfellow of special interests? …Who will watch the watchmen themselves becomes then the question? The press are supposed to scrutinize all of us, who watches them when they fail at their independent role?”

Speaking of a “very specific example,” Sheldon takes aim at the Wall Street Journal editorial page and lays out what he calls the climate “deniers playbook.” He says the editorial page misinforms readers about “harmful industrial pollutants … all to help the industry to help the campaign to manufacture doubt and delay action.”

“The pattern is a simple one: deny the science, question the motives, exaggerate the costs. Call it the polluting industry 1,2,3.”

Worth watching: