The Center for American Progress affiliated attack group “Forecast the Facts” is turning on the CBS News magazine “60 Minutes” for reporting truthfully on the issues surrounding green technology last Sunday.
See the press release below and the full video from CBS News follows.
For Immediate Release January 9, 2013
Contact: Anna Zuccaro, anna@fitzgibbonmedia.com, (914) 523-9145
Benghazi Redux? 60 Minutes “Cleantech Crash” Segment Severely Misleads Viewers
Climate Group Forms Online Petition in Demand of Public Editor
Washington, DC — On January 5th, 60 Minutes aired a segment entitled “Cleantech Crash” and made false accusations regarding the nation’s clean energy economy. The broadcast failed to mention that the clean energy industry has actually been booming, and that the increasing and severe threats of climate change makes the transition from fossil fuel pollution an economic necessity.
Not only did the “Cleantech Crash” segment mislead viewers, it threatened our ability to confront the global warming crisis.
Fortunately, 60 Minutes can still set the record straight: by appointing a Public Editor, the program can see to it that this particular broadcast is investigated, ensure that all future reporting serves the public interest and deliver more accurate information about climate change to their audience.
“Those who watched 60 Minutes this past Sunday might be under the impression that cleantech is dead, our hope for a much-needed green energy economy down the tubes,” said Forecast the Facts campaign director Brant Olson. “Fortunately for the world and unfortunately for good investigative journalism, 60 Minutes got the future of clean energy technology wrong—very wrong. 60 Minutes should appoint a Public Editor to restore its damaged reputation.”
Take a stand with us and sign the petition to demand the appointment of a 60 Minutes Public Editor, which will be delivered to Jeff Fager, Chairman of CBS News and Executive Producer of 60 Minutes: http://act.forecastthefacts.org/sign/sixty_minutes_public_editor.
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THE VIDEO:
From the YouTube video description:
Published on Jan 5, 2014
Despite billions invested by the U.S. government in so-called “Cleantech” energy, Washington and Silicon Valley have little to show for it. Lesley Stahl reports.
William Astley says:
January 9, 2014 at 6:10 pm
S’truth! Good summary of China cornering the market on rare earths and RE magnet technology. For the last ten years or so, this developing concern has been repeatedly communicated up from various defense related programs to the administrations in office, only to fall on deaf ears.
Today, we have this: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101309177
US put China-made parts in F-35 fighter program
Published: Friday, 3 Jan 2014 | 4:49 PM ET
David– Yes, invoking Article V of the Constitution to establish new Constitutional Amendments passed by 66% of the States is starting to look like the only option remaining to fix our broken system.
I’d love to see States pass the following Amendments:
1) Term Limits: Senators 2 terms, Congressmen 3 terms.
2) Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA)
3) Rescind the 16th Amendment- (eliminate all federal income/withholding/corporate taxes and replacing them with a flat 15% (or whatever is required to meet the BBA) federal consumption tax with no tax breaks. The 80,000-page tax code goes in the trash.)
4) Rescind the 17th Amendment (State Legislatures to appoint Senators as originally established).
5) Rescind the 13th Amendment (would end the Federal Reserve).
Could you imagine the howls from DC that would occur if the states actually passed ANY of these? LOL!
That alone would be worth the price of admission.
How shamefully arrogant it is for Vinod Khosla to compare his efforts with cancer research.
Kudos to 60 Minutes for finally getting the truth out about Clean Tech. What’s pathetic is that Clean Tech’s demise was known from the beginning to everyone that understood both technology and finance/economic.
Have to say that my sympathies are entirely with the people trying to come up with a new energy technology. Eventually we will run out of even shale gas, and it will be good to have some actual working renewable energy source on hand for the day. And why shouldn’t the gov support the research, just as it supports research in other areas in the public interest? Lets hope someone is looking into thorium nuclear as part of the package.
Mac the Knife–
Please note I wrote, Crony “CRAPitalism” not capitalism, which includes all corporate welfare: rules/regulations/mandates, tax breaks, bailouts, bank guarantees, federal loans, subsidies, etc., used by the industrial/banking elites to minimize competition.
I agree that none of these scams are elements of a free-market economy.
I don’t even like the term Capitalism as it is a Marxist term designed to denigrate the free-market system. Using the term “free-market” drives leftists crazy, which is why I prefer it.
Such criticism of this balanced 60 minutes segment is a perfect example of the “Dramagreens” modus operandi.
Said above,,, I like the idea of a Public Editor. That Public Editor should be me. 🙂
“Nobody shaparones the shaparone, that why I am so right for this job.”
Who said it?
100 billion.. now who has got all that money .
FOLLOW THE MONEY !
Next year they’ll be covering the clean tech boom ! That’s the media always sensationalizing stories…
Does this mean that Frontline gets a “public editor” also ….. Oh, Goodie …..
george e. smith says: January 9, 2014 at 8:36 pm They ain’t “facts” until they have happened; ergo, they can’t be forecast !!
‘Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.’
What’s the issue? Give unconditional permission to those involved in geen energy business to print their own greenbacks, a simple legislative action for free. The product would be absolutely green with no need to bother with either technology or the market any more while each stakeholder could have his own private jet and it would not cost the taxpayer a dime. Oh, wait.
Thank you Anthony for publishing these pearls.
Things are looking brighter every day. The media is starting to pick the low hanging fruit and the AGW intelligentsia resorts into a public call for kick-crying session in front of the juice producer.
I wouldn’t personally bet on Anna Zuccaro’s horse, but perhaps she used AGW-logic to identify the desired session parameters and hockey-stick models to predict the outcome.
AndyG55 says:
January 10, 2014 at 12:26 am
100 billion.. now who has got all that money….
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Money has been sucked out of the pockets of the poor and middle class and diverted to the pockets of the rich.
This is the true aim of “Progressives” Ever heard of a politician leaving office poorer than when he entered?
Wobble: I agree with you that the gov should not be supporting business development of immature and inefficient technologies. No more wind turbines that can’t pay their own way. But I do think it should support research, and not on the understanding that it must be immediately successful…well you know how research often isn’t. I thought that all those remarks on 60 minutes about expensive flops showed a pretty naive understanding of how research works. Wonder how much time and money George Mitchell put in to developing fracking technology? Did not happen over night I bet. And not all researchers have deep enough pockets to develop their ideas into maturity without support.
The CBS News magazine “60 Minutes” report was very educational. Let’s hope the Americans manage to avoid slipping further into administrative command economy.
Having said that, last time it was tested in a human civilization for real, the neighboring countries obtained an endless source of cheap, but undesirable cars and sink buckets. This is very similar except someone is willing to pay for the production facilities.
The Chinese can hug their own trees by turning them into oil etc. The USA can get energy directly from the ground via the Keystone Pipeline, by constructing new generation nuclear plants powered with thorium etc.
I propose Anthony as “public editor”.
“Fortunately, 60 Minutes can still set the record straight: by appointing a Public Editor, the program can see to it that this particular broadcast is investigated, ensure that all future reporting serves the public interest and deliver more accurate information about climate change to their audience.”
This reminds me of McCarthyism. Get them in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities and so they can confess & repent or face ostracism!
“All future reporting serves the public interest”! Or just the information that they approve of.
Good to see the tides finally turning: Now the green loonies find themselves protesting against what they see as misleading media coverage – something folks on other side of the argument have had to do for decades.
Joanna says: @ur momisugly January 10, 2014 at 1:02 am
… Wonder how much time and money George Mitchell put in to developing fracking technology? Did not happen over night I bet….
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Bad choice.
Unless you include the cost of the War Between the States (Civil War to you yanks) the government did not pay one red cent and Roberts financed the discovery and development out of his own pocket.
To continue:
f Hydraulic Fracturing is covered in the rest of the article.
This is a good article to bookmark BTW.
I’m all for using my own money for self investment. If you can install Solar panels yourself for $1/wh. Solar vacuum tubes to heat your hot water in brighter days for $350, Glaze walls on the the sunny side of your house to provide warm air space heating for those bright cold sunny mornings and buy a fire sale electric car and collect spare insulation like a rag ‘n bone man.. Total no-brainer – DO IT! Nobody needs to claim sums off the Carbonazis to make this pay. You will be seriously better off in the long run by no small margin.
The irony is those who are claiming off these schemes. The sums that get paid out go too high. Gov’ts start to put the squeeze on.. This is what you all want!
[Dupe? Mod]
I’m all for using my own money for self investment. If you can install Solar panels yourself for 1 USD per wh. Solar vacuum tubes to heat your hot water in brighter days for 350 USD, Glaze walls on the the sunny side of your house to provide warm air space heating for those bright cold sunny mornings and buy a fire sale electric car and collect spare insulation like a rag ‘n bone man.. Total no-brainer – DO IT! Nobody needs to claim sums off the Carbonazis to make this pay. You will be seriously better off in the long run by no small margin.
The irony is those who are claiming off these schemes. The sums that get paid out go too high. Gov’ts start to put the squeeze on.. This is what you all want!
Gail Combs says:
January 10, 2014 at 12:49 am
“Money has been sucked out of the pockets of the poor and middle class and diverted to the pockets of the rich.”
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Federal Reserve’s: insane policies of artificially low interest rates, QEternity, money printing, mortgaged backed security purchases, combined with government: bailouts, subsidies, bank guarantees and over regulation have totally distorted the market and have created real estate, stock market and bond bubbles.
These market distortions force money away from production/new technologies/capital investments and into speculative stock market, real estate and bond bubbles.
Good paying/high-skilled manufacturing jobs are destroyed and/or never created, which hurts the poor and middle classes. The elites in the financial sector get rich by moving electrons around and business elites get rich on their stock options from artificially inflated stock prices.
The low interest rates also cause the middle class and poor to take on too much debt and live beyond their means. The money printing and low interest rates exacerbate the problem by devaluing the currency and causing inflation, so what little money the poor/middle do make, buys less and less….
It’s a house of cards that cannot last much longer. It’s like a zombie economy.