As has been pointed out here (do a search on General Electric) many times, General Electric Corporation (GE), which owns NBC, MSNBC, "Newsweek Magazine", The Weather Channel and the Discovery Channel, is accused of broadcasting misinformation about global warming for their own monetary benefit.
In other words, this large corporation which manufactures and sells things such as wind turbines, solar panels, fluorescent light bulbs, "clean coal technology", and nuclear power plants, and has a huge stake in the "cap and trade" carbon hustle---- this same corporation operates and maintains its own propaganda machine. They have been pouring out a consistent stream of inaccurate "news" about the catastrophes awaiting us all if we do not immediately act to prevent global warming and climate change. Interestingly, the things they propose to save us, all come back to buying GE products or having the government grant them subsidies, tax credits, or outright grants, loans, and now "economic stimulus" money.
This has been reported on here and elsewhere in the non-mainstream media, but now it seems even NBC affiliates are beginning to smell the rot and stink of GE activity. Hopefully this will all be brought out into the fresh air for the public to see.
Peter
NBC Affiliate Meteorologist Rips MSNBC for Apocalyptic Global Warming Special
Michigan affiliate's chief meteorologist slams disingenuousness of MSNBC's 'Future Earth' special; GE's financial stake in cap-and-trade passage.
By Jeff Poor Business & Media Institute
4/27/2009 4:19:36 PM
NBC Universal and its networks have been criticized for the global warming alarmism it parades on a regular basis. However, now the criticism is coming from its own affiliates.
Prior to its April 26 airing on MSNBC, shows on NBC had been promoting the first part of the climate special “Future Earth” – an MSNBC program that used computer animation to show the possibilities of a polar icecap melting. That prompted Bill Steffen, a meteorologist for NBC’s Grand Rapids, Mich. affiliate, to call out MSNBC for that special.
Steffen challenged several premises of “Future Earth: Journey to the End of the World,” on his WoodTV.com blog. Steffen debunked the entire series premise that is posted on the MSNBC Web site: “Find out why Earth’s climate machine — the North Pole — is melting alarmingly fast. Learn about our planet’s future, and how you can stop its decline.”
“First, the North Pole is not ‘Earth’s Climate Machine,’” Steffen wrote. “There is far more heat and area in the Tropics than at the North Pole. Second, YOU can’t stop its decline (assuming it’s declining)! Nature is big - you personally are insignificant compared to nature. Don’t you wish you had the power to control icecaps! If you don’t mind some profanity, check out George Carlin’s take on ‘Saving the Planet.’ Third, MSNBC does not know ‘our planet’s future.’”
Steffen rebutted claims of the MSNBC special saying that ice in the Antarctic has actually been expanding and that polar ice melting alone would not cause sea level to rise as depicted in the “Future Earth.”
“Keep in mind that if the Polar icecap (without Greenland) melted…it would hardly cause sea level to rise, because the icecap is currently displacing water in the Arctic Ocean,” Steffen wrote.
Steffen also pointed out, as many others have, the financial stake NBC Universal’s parent company General Electric (NYSE:GE) has invested in cap-and-trade becoming law.
“One last point, MSNBC is owned by General Electric,” Steffen wrote. “GE is already making money off the issue with their Carbon Credit Master Card (link from ‘Treehugger,’ no less). Here’s CNN’s story on the new credit card.”
Steffen even showed how much GE has spent lobbying for environmental causes, originally reported by the Washington Examiner on March 3.
“Interesting note: In the fourth quarter of 2008 as GE/NBC stock fell 30 percent, GE spent $4.26 million on lobbying — that’s $46,304 each day, including weekends, Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Steffen wrote. “In 2008, the company spent a grand total of $18.66 million on lobbying. Reviewing their lobbying filings, GE’s specific lobbying issues included the ‘Climate Stewardship Act,’ ‘Electric Utility Cap and Trade Act,’ ‘Global Warming Reduction Act,’ ‘Federal Government Greenhouse Gas Registry Act,’ ‘Low Carbon Economy Act,’ and ‘Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act.’ Do you think this ‘big business’ is just concerned about the environment?”
Showing posts with label Tom Brokaw. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tom Brokaw. Show all posts
Monday, April 27, 2009
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Tom Brokaw And His Global Warming Biased Agenda
Here is a slightly critical review of Tom Brokaw's Discovery Channel special on global warming, noting that the program only presents one side of the story. Note a key figure is Jim Hansen of NASA.
Peter
from: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aioxPLZizTeg&refer=culture
Brokaw Warns of Melting Glaciers, Greenhouse Gases: TV Review
By Dave Shiflett
July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Tom Brokaw's special on global warming claims to have ``no agenda,'' though some viewers will quickly suspect he's out to make us sweat.
If mankind doesn't change its polluting ways, New Yorkers will soon be snorkeling to work. That's the basic message of ``Global Warming: What You Need to Know,'' which airs on July 16 at 9 p.m. New York time on the Discovery Channel.
Brokaw, like former Vice President Al Gore and many prominent scientists, is convinced that carbon-dioxide emissions are the main cause of global warming and that without serious change we should expect gondoliers in San Francisco. The former NBC anchorman delivers the bad news in his trademark solemn monotone and travels widely to marshal his argument.
In the ice fields of Patagonia, glacier expert Stephan Harrison explains that ice is melting at an incredible rate. In Montana, the 66-year-old Brokaw says Glacier National Park may be glacier-free ``in my lifetime.''
Geologist Mark Serreze takes us into the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, where core ice samples reaching back 600,000 years provide a startling fact: heat- trapping carbon-dioxide levels have reached an all-time high, which bodes ill for the planet's health.
In the Amazon rain forest, tree harvesting, farming and drought are reducing the ability of the ``Earth's lung'' to cleanse the air of CO2. In China, growing energy demands are being met by large-scale production of CO2-belching, coal-fired power plants.
No Dissent
Then there's the U.S., world leader in C02 emissions thanks to our love of the internal-combustion engine, large appliances and jet travel.
Brokaw relies largely on a handful of experts in the two- hour show, particularly NASA's James Hansen and Princeton professor Michael Oppenheimer. Both support Brokaw's view of global warming and consider the scientific debate closed.
Brokaw scoffs at the notion that there are ``any remaining doubts humans are behind temperature rises,'' while Hansen says ``99.5 percent of scientists say we know what's going on.''
You'll find more dissent at a North Korean political rally than in this program, which would have benefited from contrarian views, perhaps from MIT's Richard S. Lindzen or William Gray, the world's foremost expert on hurricanes and a critic of global- warming orthodoxy. Both are serious scientists, yet neither appears to be in Brokaw's Rolodex.
Kyoto Protocol
Brokaw does ask Oppenheimer why critics ``refuse to believe it's a fact.'' Oppenheimer says some may find the issue too ``frightening,'' while others have a ``financial interest'' in the status quo. In other words, critics are stooges for industry. Does that mean Brokaw is a stooge for environmentalists?
While the show claims some of the damage is ``irreversible,'' Brokaw holds out hope that personal and political action can bring about significant change. Americans can greatly reduce their CO2 output by driving smaller cars, taking the bus, using fluorescent light bulbs and exercising a bit more thermostat discipline.
Brokaw praises the Kyoto Protocol, which sets goals for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions in industrialized countries. The Bush administration opposes the agreement, saying it would hurt the U.S. economy and not have much impact in heavily polluting countries like China.
The program offers a host of possible solutions, including wind farms, solar energy, increased use of ethanol and buildings that utilize recycled material and energy saving-technology.
If we don't act soon, Brokaw says, we may reach a ``tipping point'' of no return: New York and other coastal cities will be submerged, while Bangladesh will vanish beneath the waves. We're also told there could be mass extinction of wildlife, a plague of disease-bearing insect swarms, extreme weather and famine causing mass starvation.
A powerful presentation, to be sure, though certainly one with an agenda.
Peter
from: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aioxPLZizTeg&refer=culture
Brokaw Warns of Melting Glaciers, Greenhouse Gases: TV Review
By Dave Shiflett
July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Tom Brokaw's special on global warming claims to have ``no agenda,'' though some viewers will quickly suspect he's out to make us sweat.
If mankind doesn't change its polluting ways, New Yorkers will soon be snorkeling to work. That's the basic message of ``Global Warming: What You Need to Know,'' which airs on July 16 at 9 p.m. New York time on the Discovery Channel.
Brokaw, like former Vice President Al Gore and many prominent scientists, is convinced that carbon-dioxide emissions are the main cause of global warming and that without serious change we should expect gondoliers in San Francisco. The former NBC anchorman delivers the bad news in his trademark solemn monotone and travels widely to marshal his argument.
In the ice fields of Patagonia, glacier expert Stephan Harrison explains that ice is melting at an incredible rate. In Montana, the 66-year-old Brokaw says Glacier National Park may be glacier-free ``in my lifetime.''
Geologist Mark Serreze takes us into the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, where core ice samples reaching back 600,000 years provide a startling fact: heat- trapping carbon-dioxide levels have reached an all-time high, which bodes ill for the planet's health.
In the Amazon rain forest, tree harvesting, farming and drought are reducing the ability of the ``Earth's lung'' to cleanse the air of CO2. In China, growing energy demands are being met by large-scale production of CO2-belching, coal-fired power plants.
No Dissent
Then there's the U.S., world leader in C02 emissions thanks to our love of the internal-combustion engine, large appliances and jet travel.
Brokaw relies largely on a handful of experts in the two- hour show, particularly NASA's James Hansen and Princeton professor Michael Oppenheimer. Both support Brokaw's view of global warming and consider the scientific debate closed.
Brokaw scoffs at the notion that there are ``any remaining doubts humans are behind temperature rises,'' while Hansen says ``99.5 percent of scientists say we know what's going on.''
You'll find more dissent at a North Korean political rally than in this program, which would have benefited from contrarian views, perhaps from MIT's Richard S. Lindzen or William Gray, the world's foremost expert on hurricanes and a critic of global- warming orthodoxy. Both are serious scientists, yet neither appears to be in Brokaw's Rolodex.
Kyoto Protocol
Brokaw does ask Oppenheimer why critics ``refuse to believe it's a fact.'' Oppenheimer says some may find the issue too ``frightening,'' while others have a ``financial interest'' in the status quo. In other words, critics are stooges for industry. Does that mean Brokaw is a stooge for environmentalists?
While the show claims some of the damage is ``irreversible,'' Brokaw holds out hope that personal and political action can bring about significant change. Americans can greatly reduce their CO2 output by driving smaller cars, taking the bus, using fluorescent light bulbs and exercising a bit more thermostat discipline.
Brokaw praises the Kyoto Protocol, which sets goals for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions in industrialized countries. The Bush administration opposes the agreement, saying it would hurt the U.S. economy and not have much impact in heavily polluting countries like China.
The program offers a host of possible solutions, including wind farms, solar energy, increased use of ethanol and buildings that utilize recycled material and energy saving-technology.
If we don't act soon, Brokaw says, we may reach a ``tipping point'' of no return: New York and other coastal cities will be submerged, while Bangladesh will vanish beneath the waves. We're also told there could be mass extinction of wildlife, a plague of disease-bearing insect swarms, extreme weather and famine causing mass starvation.
A powerful presentation, to be sure, though certainly one with an agenda.
More On Tom Brokaw Environmentalist
After all of the evidence, from all of the prominent scientists disputing the idea that man is causing global warming and climate change, it is a bit surprising to hear these things from Tom Brokaw. Of course he did work for NBC. And he does have deep political ties with people pushing the idea of man-caused global warming. It does make one a bit skeptical, I would think.
Peter
from:
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2006-07-09-brokaw-global-warming_x.htm
Tom Brokaw joins the battle against global warming
Updated 7/9/2006 2:26 PM ET
By Gary Benson, AP/Discovery Channel
Host Tom Brokaw stands in Montana's Glacier National Park during an on-location interview for the Discovery Channel special, "Global Warming: What You Need to Know," which premieres Sunday.
NEW YORK (AP) — Tom Brokaw is giving Al Gore some company in the effort to raise awareness of global warming.
The former NBC anchorman is host of "Global Warming: What You Need to Know," which doubles as an explainer and call to action for average Americans. It premieres Sunday, July 16 at 9 p.m. on the Discovery Channel.
Brokaw said he has seen and was impressed by "An Inconvenient Truth," Gore's documentary on the subject.
"It's the same science that we are drawing upon and it's irrefutable," he said. "I thought there was too much of Gore, but that's not my call. I thought it was very effectively done. To give credit to him, he's been on this issue for a long period of time."
Discovery, which has a partnership with NBC News, asked Brokaw last year if there were any projects he would like to work on. He said he was interested in the environment, and Discovery mentioned its global-warming project, which it was making in partnership with the BBC.
Brokaw's wife, Meredith, is vice president of the environmental organization Conservation International. They've traveled to some of the places featured in the Discovery documentary, like Patagonia and Mongolia, and have seen firsthand the effects of global warming.
He's tried to alter some habits to save fossil fuels: changing light fixtures in his homes, for example. He owns a hybrid car, and so do both of his daughters.
"It's not affecting our lifestyle at all, not one whit," he said.
On the Discovery documentary, producers travel great distances to make the case that man has contributed to a rapid warming of the planet's atmosphere that has already had noticeable effects and will potentially have much more.
A scientist in the Arctic explains how the increased melting of summertime sea ice is slowly starving the polar bear population. Rising sea water seeping through the ground threatens to eventually swallow entirely the South Pacific island of Tuvalu. Drought threatens the giant Amazon rain forest. Explorers bring cameras beneath ice sheets in Patagonia to show the melting.
More frightening are the scenarios that scientists can see for the future: increased sea levels swallowing cities like New York, more vicious hurricanes like Katrina, more land turning to desert. One expert even envisions half of the planet's species disappearing by the end of this century.
"By the year 2100, in the lifetime of our children and grandchildren, our world will be a drastically different place," Brokaw says in the documentary.
In helping put together the film, Brokaw said he was surprised at the speed with which everything is happening and the growing agreement among scientists about what was once a controversial notion.
Producers speak to no one, at least on film, who believes the current warmth is part of the Earth's natural cycle and who minimizes the importance of what is happening.
"You go around the world and it is the overwhelming number of people in the science of climatology who say this is happening," Brokaw said.
Discovery does intend to alter one part of the film that, in a preview tape, talks about the United States' refusal to participate in the Kyoto international treaty to reduce greenhouse gases, he said. During the discussion, a picture is flashed of a demonstrator holding a picture of President Bush emblazoned with "toxic Texan." Brokaw said that political blame should be distributed more broadly.
The same scientists who warn of dire consequences also say that there are things that can be done to greatly slow the rate of global warming.
In the film, Brokaw presents examples big and small — from New York City promoting more energy-efficient mass transportation and environmentally friendly building construction to families that can save a remarkable amount of energy by simply unplugging television sets when they aren't being used.
Brokaw, 66, spoke by telephone from Colorado, where he's working on a documentary about illegal immigration. Another NBC documentary, about the black underclass, is set to run later this month.
How's this retirement thing working out anyway?
"Good question," he said. "I flunked."
He said he's trying to find a better balance between work, relaxation and travel. Even when he's working on projects, he said it feels freeing not to have to be in the studio at 6:30 every night for NBC's "Nightly News."
With all the changes at the top ranks of network anchors — former NBC star Katie Couric about to take over at the "CBS Evening News," Charles Gibson in charge at ABC News — Brokaw is loyal to successor Brian Williams.
"I'm sure a year from now (Couric) will have a secure lock on second place," he said.
Peter
from:
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2006-07-09-brokaw-global-warming_x.htm
Tom Brokaw joins the battle against global warming
Updated 7/9/2006 2:26 PM ET
By Gary Benson, AP/Discovery Channel
Host Tom Brokaw stands in Montana's Glacier National Park during an on-location interview for the Discovery Channel special, "Global Warming: What You Need to Know," which premieres Sunday.
NEW YORK (AP) — Tom Brokaw is giving Al Gore some company in the effort to raise awareness of global warming.
The former NBC anchorman is host of "Global Warming: What You Need to Know," which doubles as an explainer and call to action for average Americans. It premieres Sunday, July 16 at 9 p.m. on the Discovery Channel.
Brokaw said he has seen and was impressed by "An Inconvenient Truth," Gore's documentary on the subject.
"It's the same science that we are drawing upon and it's irrefutable," he said. "I thought there was too much of Gore, but that's not my call. I thought it was very effectively done. To give credit to him, he's been on this issue for a long period of time."
Discovery, which has a partnership with NBC News, asked Brokaw last year if there were any projects he would like to work on. He said he was interested in the environment, and Discovery mentioned its global-warming project, which it was making in partnership with the BBC.
Brokaw's wife, Meredith, is vice president of the environmental organization Conservation International. They've traveled to some of the places featured in the Discovery documentary, like Patagonia and Mongolia, and have seen firsthand the effects of global warming.
He's tried to alter some habits to save fossil fuels: changing light fixtures in his homes, for example. He owns a hybrid car, and so do both of his daughters.
"It's not affecting our lifestyle at all, not one whit," he said.
On the Discovery documentary, producers travel great distances to make the case that man has contributed to a rapid warming of the planet's atmosphere that has already had noticeable effects and will potentially have much more.
A scientist in the Arctic explains how the increased melting of summertime sea ice is slowly starving the polar bear population. Rising sea water seeping through the ground threatens to eventually swallow entirely the South Pacific island of Tuvalu. Drought threatens the giant Amazon rain forest. Explorers bring cameras beneath ice sheets in Patagonia to show the melting.
More frightening are the scenarios that scientists can see for the future: increased sea levels swallowing cities like New York, more vicious hurricanes like Katrina, more land turning to desert. One expert even envisions half of the planet's species disappearing by the end of this century.
"By the year 2100, in the lifetime of our children and grandchildren, our world will be a drastically different place," Brokaw says in the documentary.
In helping put together the film, Brokaw said he was surprised at the speed with which everything is happening and the growing agreement among scientists about what was once a controversial notion.
Producers speak to no one, at least on film, who believes the current warmth is part of the Earth's natural cycle and who minimizes the importance of what is happening.
"You go around the world and it is the overwhelming number of people in the science of climatology who say this is happening," Brokaw said.
Discovery does intend to alter one part of the film that, in a preview tape, talks about the United States' refusal to participate in the Kyoto international treaty to reduce greenhouse gases, he said. During the discussion, a picture is flashed of a demonstrator holding a picture of President Bush emblazoned with "toxic Texan." Brokaw said that political blame should be distributed more broadly.
The same scientists who warn of dire consequences also say that there are things that can be done to greatly slow the rate of global warming.
In the film, Brokaw presents examples big and small — from New York City promoting more energy-efficient mass transportation and environmentally friendly building construction to families that can save a remarkable amount of energy by simply unplugging television sets when they aren't being used.
Brokaw, 66, spoke by telephone from Colorado, where he's working on a documentary about illegal immigration. Another NBC documentary, about the black underclass, is set to run later this month.
How's this retirement thing working out anyway?
"Good question," he said. "I flunked."
He said he's trying to find a better balance between work, relaxation and travel. Even when he's working on projects, he said it feels freeing not to have to be in the studio at 6:30 every night for NBC's "Nightly News."
With all the changes at the top ranks of network anchors — former NBC star Katie Couric about to take over at the "CBS Evening News," Charles Gibson in charge at ABC News — Brokaw is loyal to successor Brian Williams.
"I'm sure a year from now (Couric) will have a secure lock on second place," he said.
Tom Brokaw, Environmentalist, Montana
from:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1429063/posts
Tom Brokaw Bought a Dude Ranch with Clinton Admin's Robert Rubin MRC ^ June 23, 2005 BrentBaker
Posted on 06/23/2005 10:40:12 AM PDT by fight_truth_decay
Last year Tom Brokaw bought a Montana "dude ranch" with several others, including Clinton administration Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, actor Michael Keaton, one of the other partners, revealed on Wednesday's Late Show with David Letterman. The February issue of Sunset magazine reported the purchase and how the buyers turned the ranch into a private fishing camp, but didn't mention Rubin's involvement: "Last spring...an out-of-state partnership including former anchorman Tom Brokaw and actor Michael Keaton purchased a 640-acre ranch for a reported $8 million, creating a private hunting and fishing preserve."
Back on the May 12, 1999 NBC Nightly News, the day Rubin resigned from his Treasury post, Tom Brokaw praised Rubin, telling viewers he "is going back to private life after quietly and very skillfully positioning the government to help fuel these extraordinarily good times."
On Wednesday's Late Show, Michael Keaton, a star of the new movie for kids, Herbie: Fully Loaded, brought up fishing and that prompted David Letterman to ask: "Recently, I've heard from Tom Brokaw, that you and Tom purchased a fishing camp."
Michael Keaton: "Yeah."
Letterman: "Now, what is that? Is that on the up and up?"
Keaton: "Yeah, yeah. It's a friend of our's, Skip Herman, and Tom and Robert Rubin, actually, who was in the Clinton administration, Secretary of the Treasury. And, of course, you know, we were smart enough to, like, make him, like, you know, like, groundskeeper, instead of taking care of the money. Hey, Robert, you mow the lawn or something. Shouldn't I take care of the money? No, Tom will do that, don't worry about it!"
Letterman: "What goes on there? What happens there?"
Keaton: "Oh, I could never tell you about that."
Letterman: "I mean, you guys get together, like once a week-"
Keaton: "No, no, what we did, it was more to preserve it than anything. It was an old dude ranch that had been in the family -- it's right up the valley from me -- and, you know, the guy would let us fish there after the dudes had gone, you know -- I know-" (cut off by audience laughter)
Letterman: "After the dudes had gone."
Keaton: "So we bought it, just really to save it. It's a really pristine section of the river, and a beautiful section. We just all went together to buy it. It's really beautiful."
Letterman: "And you're not running around snapping each other with towels."
Keaton: "Well, yeah, I mean, that happens. (Audience laughter) Yeah, yeah, we have a sign, like an old rickety sign that says, 'no girls!'" (laughter)
(The MRC's Brian Boyd corrected the closed-captioning against the video of the June 22 Late Show.)
To see where this ranch is located and if anyone had reported this Brokaw-Rubin venture, I performed some Nexis searches and came up with only one article, in Sunset magazine, which reported the 2004 transaction for the ranch in the area of Big Timber, Montana. (Letterman also owns property in Montana.) The article cited Brokaw and Keaton, but not Rubin.
An excerpt from the story in the February edition of Sunset magazine, "Home on the range: Meet Montana ranching families want to raise healthier beef for you -- and save their way of life," by Jeff Phillips:
The town of Big Timber, once the region's largest wool producer, today has only 1,700 residents, but Montana State University Extension agent Marc King, who works with both farmers and government agencies in Sweet Grass County, says the face of that population is starting to change. "Most every ranch in this county has been in the family for at least three or four generations," explains King, "but as those families are forced to sell, new owners are taking the land out of production."
Last spring, for example, an out-of-state partnership including former anchorman Tom Brokaw and actor Michael Keaton purchased a 640-acre ranch for a reported $8 million, creating a private hunting and fishing preserve. Members of that partnership now own at least 12,000 acres of ranchland in the heart of the region.
END of Excerpt
The article is posted online, but you'll need to be an AOL member or pay to read it: http://www.sunset.com/
In a later letter to the magazine, Brokaw corrected the price to $7 million.
Ted Turner has a 120,000-acre ranch outside of Bozeman. In Livingston, Jeff Bridges has a home and owns a coffee shop. Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid (before the breakup) in Livingston. Near Big Timber, 30 miles east of Livingston, Tom Brokaw, Michael Keaton(Architectural Digest June 1997 Cover- Featuring Michael Keaton's ranch) and Whoopi Goldberg all have ranches.
Mel Gibson has a ranch a little farther east, near Columbus. Kiefer Sutherland, Emilio Estevez, Joe Montana, Christopher Lloyd, Huey Lewis, and Andie McDowall all have homes in western Montana.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1429063/posts
Tom Brokaw Bought a Dude Ranch with Clinton Admin's Robert Rubin MRC ^ June 23, 2005 BrentBaker
Posted on 06/23/2005 10:40:12 AM PDT by fight_truth_decay
Last year Tom Brokaw bought a Montana "dude ranch" with several others, including Clinton administration Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, actor Michael Keaton, one of the other partners, revealed on Wednesday's Late Show with David Letterman. The February issue of Sunset magazine reported the purchase and how the buyers turned the ranch into a private fishing camp, but didn't mention Rubin's involvement: "Last spring...an out-of-state partnership including former anchorman Tom Brokaw and actor Michael Keaton purchased a 640-acre ranch for a reported $8 million, creating a private hunting and fishing preserve."
Back on the May 12, 1999 NBC Nightly News, the day Rubin resigned from his Treasury post, Tom Brokaw praised Rubin, telling viewers he "is going back to private life after quietly and very skillfully positioning the government to help fuel these extraordinarily good times."
On Wednesday's Late Show, Michael Keaton, a star of the new movie for kids, Herbie: Fully Loaded, brought up fishing and that prompted David Letterman to ask: "Recently, I've heard from Tom Brokaw, that you and Tom purchased a fishing camp."
Michael Keaton: "Yeah."
Letterman: "Now, what is that? Is that on the up and up?"
Keaton: "Yeah, yeah. It's a friend of our's, Skip Herman, and Tom and Robert Rubin, actually, who was in the Clinton administration, Secretary of the Treasury. And, of course, you know, we were smart enough to, like, make him, like, you know, like, groundskeeper, instead of taking care of the money. Hey, Robert, you mow the lawn or something. Shouldn't I take care of the money? No, Tom will do that, don't worry about it!"
Letterman: "What goes on there? What happens there?"
Keaton: "Oh, I could never tell you about that."
Letterman: "I mean, you guys get together, like once a week-"
Keaton: "No, no, what we did, it was more to preserve it than anything. It was an old dude ranch that had been in the family -- it's right up the valley from me -- and, you know, the guy would let us fish there after the dudes had gone, you know -- I know-" (cut off by audience laughter)
Letterman: "After the dudes had gone."
Keaton: "So we bought it, just really to save it. It's a really pristine section of the river, and a beautiful section. We just all went together to buy it. It's really beautiful."
Letterman: "And you're not running around snapping each other with towels."
Keaton: "Well, yeah, I mean, that happens. (Audience laughter) Yeah, yeah, we have a sign, like an old rickety sign that says, 'no girls!'" (laughter)
(The MRC's Brian Boyd corrected the closed-captioning against the video of the June 22 Late Show.)
To see where this ranch is located and if anyone had reported this Brokaw-Rubin venture, I performed some Nexis searches and came up with only one article, in Sunset magazine, which reported the 2004 transaction for the ranch in the area of Big Timber, Montana. (Letterman also owns property in Montana.) The article cited Brokaw and Keaton, but not Rubin.
An excerpt from the story in the February edition of Sunset magazine, "Home on the range: Meet Montana ranching families want to raise healthier beef for you -- and save their way of life," by Jeff Phillips:
The town of Big Timber, once the region's largest wool producer, today has only 1,700 residents, but Montana State University Extension agent Marc King, who works with both farmers and government agencies in Sweet Grass County, says the face of that population is starting to change. "Most every ranch in this county has been in the family for at least three or four generations," explains King, "but as those families are forced to sell, new owners are taking the land out of production."
Last spring, for example, an out-of-state partnership including former anchorman Tom Brokaw and actor Michael Keaton purchased a 640-acre ranch for a reported $8 million, creating a private hunting and fishing preserve. Members of that partnership now own at least 12,000 acres of ranchland in the heart of the region.
END of Excerpt
The article is posted online, but you'll need to be an AOL member or pay to read it: http://www.sunset.com/
In a later letter to the magazine, Brokaw corrected the price to $7 million.
Ted Turner has a 120,000-acre ranch outside of Bozeman. In Livingston, Jeff Bridges has a home and owns a coffee shop. Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid (before the breakup) in Livingston. Near Big Timber, 30 miles east of Livingston, Tom Brokaw, Michael Keaton(Architectural Digest June 1997 Cover- Featuring Michael Keaton's ranch) and Whoopi Goldberg all have ranches.
Mel Gibson has a ranch a little farther east, near Columbus. Kiefer Sutherland, Emilio Estevez, Joe Montana, Christopher Lloyd, Huey Lewis, and Andie McDowall all have homes in western Montana.
James Hansen, NASA Temperature Data Scandal, Media Bias......
This interesting information about the NASA Scientist (James Hansen) in charge of collecting and interpreting temperature data used in computer climate models that predict global warming and catastrophic climate change. Can you read this and not smell a rat?
Brokaw’s partisan environmental credentials are so firmly established that the former anchor was offered a job in the Clinton-Gore Administration to be the director of the National Park Service in 1993. According to the Washington Post, Brokaw ‘very seriously’ considered the offer at the time but decided to remain with NBC News. "I have a lot of friends in the environmental movement,” Brokaw said. Brokaw’s wife also serves as vice president of the environmental group Conservation International.
In his new Discovery Channel special, Brokaw does not disclose the potential and known biases of the scientists he chose to feature. For example, Brokaw presents NASA’s James Hansen as an authority on climate change without revealing to viewers the extensive political and financial ties that Hansen has to Democratic Party partisans. Hansen, the director of the agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, received a $250,000 grant from the charitable foundation headed and controlled by former Democrat Presidential candidate John Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz.
Subsequent to the Heinz Foundation grant, Hansen publicly endorsed Democrat John Kerry for president in 2004, a political endorsement considered to be highly unusual for a NASA scientist. Hansen also has acted as a consultant to Gore's slide-show presentations on global warming, on which Gore’s movie is based. Hansen also very actively promoted Gore and his movie, even appearing at a New York City Town Hall meeting with Gore and several Hollywood producers in May.
Hansen also wrote in an article in the journal Natural Science in 2003 that the use of “extreme scenarios" to dramatize climate change “may have been appropriate at one time” to drive the public's attention to the issue a disturbing admission by a prominent scientist.
Brokaw’s special also features Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University. Brokaw once again fails to disclose Oppenheimer’s partisan and ideological affiliations to viewers. Brokaw fails to note that Oppenheimer actively campaigned against President George Bush in 2004 and, like Hansen, endorsed Senator Kerry for president. Oppenheimer was affiliated with the partisan group Scientists and Engineers for Change and the green group Environment2004 financially bankrolled in part by the Heinz Foundation where Teresa Heinz-Kerry serves as the chairwoman.
Environment2004, which put up billboards in Florida mocking President Bush in the final months of the 2004 presidential election. Viewers of Brokaw’s program will not be informed that Oppenheimer personally donated to the group Environment2004, a group that was so partisan it encouraged visitors to their Webpage to “get involved” in defeating President Bush.
In addition, Oppenheimer also serves as a "science advisor" to the left wing and politically charged group Environmental Defense and was a co-founder of Climate Action Network. Finally, Oppenheimer appeared with Hollywood activist Leonardo DiCaprio and Gore’s movie producer Laurie David on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show.
We need some hard information supporting all of these claims, and if these things turn out to be factual, which I think they are, they need to be broadcast far and wide.
Peter
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Message
GCB Stokes
Message #6109/09/07 03:17 AM
Here is a little something on Hansen and another politically involved researcher, and the global warming bias news media.
Former NBC newsman, Tom Brokaw who has been affiliated with the Sierra Club and has recently lavished praise on former Vice President Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth.” Brokaw, who called Gore’s film “stylish and compelling”, has called the science behind catastrophic human caused global warming ‘irrefutable.” Brokaw also chose to ignore all 60 scientists who wrote to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in April of 2006 questioning the science of climate alarmism.
Brokaw’s partisan environmental credentials are so firmly established that the former anchor was offered a job in the Clinton-Gore Administration to be the director of the National Park Service in 1993. According to the Washington Post, Brokaw ‘very seriously’ considered the offer at the time but decided to remain with NBC News. "I have a lot of friends in the environmental movement,” Brokaw said. Brokaw’s wife also serves as vice president of the environmental group Conservation International.
In his new Discovery Channel special, Brokaw does not disclose the potential and known biases of the scientists he chose to feature. For example, Brokaw presents NASA’s James Hansen as an authority on climate change without revealing to viewers the extensive political and financial ties that Hansen has to Democratic Party partisans. Hansen, the director of the agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, received a $250,000 grant from the charitable foundation headed and controlled by former Democrat Presidential candidate John Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz.
Subsequent to the Heinz Foundation grant, Hansen publicly endorsed Democrat John Kerry for president in 2004, a political endorsement considered to be highly unusual for a NASA scientist. Hansen also has acted as a consultant to Gore's slide-show presentations on global warming, on which Gore’s movie is based. Hansen also very actively promoted Gore and his movie, even appearing at a New York City Town Hall meeting with Gore and several Hollywood producers in May.
Hansen also wrote in an article in the journal Natural Science in 2003 that the use of “extreme scenarios" to dramatize climate change “may have been appropriate at one time” to drive the public's attention to the issue a disturbing admission by a prominent scientist.
Brokaw’s special also features Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University. Brokaw once again fails to disclose Oppenheimer’s partisan and ideological affiliations to viewers. Brokaw fails to note that Oppenheimer actively campaigned against President George Bush in 2004 and, like Hansen, endorsed Senator Kerry for president. Oppenheimer was affiliated with the partisan group Scientists and Engineers for Change and the green group Environment2004 financially bankrolled in part by the Heinz Foundation where Teresa Heinz-Kerry serves as the chairwoman.
Environment2004, which put up billboards in Florida mocking President Bush in the final months of the 2004 presidential election. Viewers of Brokaw’s program will not be informed that Oppenheimer personally donated to the group Environment2004, a group that was so partisan it encouraged visitors to their Webpage to “get involved” in defeating President Bush.
In addition, Oppenheimer also serves as a "science advisor" to the left wing and politically charged group Environmental Defense and was a co-founder of Climate Action Network. Finally, Oppenheimer appeared with Hollywood activist Leonardo DiCaprio and Gore’s movie producer Laurie David on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show.
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