How The Merchants Of Doubt Push Climate Denial On Your Television

My deep prayer: That the numbers grow of those of us who are setting the commitment, or deepening our commitment, to be brave and look where it is scary and hard to look, and then take some form of action, no matter how small. These are not "left/right" issues, that is the BIG LIE - that we are so different. NOT TRUE! We can refuse to be polarized and join together. Such as joining together in following the money - BIG MONEY - and how wealthy interests are impacting us here in America and around the world. We can do this! We need each other! My little baby grandson Oliver needs us to come together! Another world is possible. Tag - we are all it!  

Peace ~ Molly

 by DENISE ROBBINS

A new documentary shows how a "professional class of deceivers" has been paid by the fossil fuel industry to cast doubt on the science of climate change, in an effort akin to that from the tobacco industry, which fordecades used deceitful tactics to deny the scientific evidence that cigarettes are harmful to human health. The film, Merchants of Doubt, explores how many of the same people that once lobbied on behalf of the tobacco industry are now employed in the climate denial game.

An infamous 1969 memo from a tobacco executive read: "Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the 'body of fact' that exists in the minds of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy." Using similar tactics, a very small set of people have had immense influence in sowing doubt on the scientific consensus of manmade climate change in recent years.

Merchants of Doubt features five prominent climate science deniers who have been particularly influential in deceiving the public and blocking climate action. Their financial connections to the fossil fuel industry are not hard to uncover. Yet major U.S. television networks -- CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ABC, CBS, and PBS -- have given most of these deniers prominent exposure over the past several years. 

Merchant of Doubt	Number of TV Appearances, 2009-2014
Marc Morano	30
James Taylor	8
Fred Singer	8
Tim Phillips	7

Now that these Merchants of Doubt have been exposed, the major cable and network news programs need to keep them off the airwaves, a sentiment echoed by Forecast the Facts, which recently launched a petition demanding that news directors do just that.

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