In his latest column on the corruption of the Environmental Protection Agency, Patrick Zabawa’s first sentence is, “as a reader, you expect the news stories in this newspaper to be balanced and unbiased” (The cover-ups continue, 07/13/2009). Had Zabawa used these themes as his guide and bothered to do a Google search, he would have found that John Davidson and Alan Carlin, who authored a report on global warming discarded by the EPA on global warming that Zabawa referenced, aren’t climate scientists.
I found and read the “gagged” draft report. In summary, it immediately states that the report’s theories could be wrong. The main theme is that the Earth’s climate is so incredibly complex that the possibility exists that man-made carbon dioxide increases may not be the sole cause of global warming. Until we know for sure, I would allow that this is possible, but the General Secretary of The World Meteorological Organization wrote in response, “It is a misinterpretation of the data and of scientific knowledge to point to one year as the warmest on record . . . and then to extrapolate that cooler subsequent years invalidate the reality of global warming and its effects.”
I am disgusted that the journalistic ethics and ideals I studied at the University are being corrupted by the likes of Fox News and writers more interested in a political agenda than in the truth.
All governments are going to suffer corruption at some point. That is expected. But, the example provided in Zabawa’s column is weak at best.
That said, the “gagged” report and subsequent media spin achieved its right wing goal of injecting FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) into the debate on the environment as Obama tries to move this country toward a green, energy-independent future that big oil corporations oppose.
Now there’s a place for a good journalist to look for political corruption.
Jacques Mersereau
Staff
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