Mike Rosen’s Global Warming Disinformation Mouthpiece: Maureen Martin
He’s done it before, but this will mark the first time I’ve covered Mike Rosen’s efforts to spread global warming disinformation by hosting denyers on his radio program on 850 KOA (via Colorado Media Matters). Amy Oliver, another radio host in the market, has hosted plenty of her own denyers, so Mike has company. The thing that is similar between the two hosts is their utilization of “free marketeers” as “experts” on climate change. This episode builds on the right-wing’s attempt to scare people into thinking discussion about climate change is secretly hiding an anti-economy viewpoint. It’s nonsense of course, but they will fight tooth and nail to maintain their lock on our economic system, no matter how much it strengthens the disparity between classes.
Mike Rosen introduced Maureen Martin as a “senior fellow for legal affairs at the Heartland Institute”. That’s sounds impressive, doesn’t it? The Heartland Institute is only one think tank among many that focus on “free market” approaches. It has become more clear to Coloradans recently what kind of “free market” these advocates would like to move toward: indentured servitude, human trafficking, child prostitution and compulsory abortions, via the Schaffer-Abramoff proposal. No thanks, Bob, Mike, Maureen and Co. I actually support workers’ rights - they’re what created and what sustain the middle class.
Moving on, guess which corporation donates to the Heartland Institute. ExxonMobil Corp. ExxonMobil gave the Heartland Institute $561,500 from 1998 to 2005, including $119,000 in 2005 alone. 2006 was no different, with $115,000 making its way into Heartland’s funding. Further, Heartland is not the only think tank to receive funding from Exxon. What kind of material do you think Exxon would like to see come out of Heartland? Papers and staff acknowledging the crisis looming before us in climate change? Or staff and papers claiming that climate change is just a “mass delusion” and attacking people who have spent their careers studying our climate system? Well, Exxon posted an $11.66 billion profit in just one three-month period earlier this year, and counted up $40.61 billion last year. Those numbers increased by 30% from just one year ago. Exxon obviously has no interest in seeing climate change challenged by rich “free marketeers”, does it?
Given all that, do you think Mike Rosen told his audience that Maureen Martin’s Heartland Institute is funded by Big Oil? Of course not. Despite being proud “free marketeers”, they don’t fully inform listeners of petty details like that. That isn’t in the publics’ best interest. It’s deceitful and cowardly. Unfortunately, I’ve come to expect that behavior from Mr. Rosen.
Maureen Martin was on Mike’s show to showcase a batch of letters Heartland received from a class of sixth graders in California. Apparently, the first international climate change denyers convention attracted their teacher’s attention. CMM didn’t get into the details of what’s going on in the classroom, but as presented, this scenario troubles me. What exactly is Michael Steria teaching in the classroom? It’s listed as a public school. Is denialist propaganda part of the district’s approved materials? Was he presenting an alternative viewpoint as part of a larger lesson? If students are taught that climate change is a hoax, they’re going to be in for a rude shock by the time they go to college and have to live on their own. This approach is an attack on science and needs to end.
April 19, 2008 at 11:54 pm
And I guess all those global warming proponents whose livelyhood depends on activist money dont count.
April 20, 2008 at 12:28 am
They sure don’t. The two can’t be equitably compared.
But thanks for trying to distract from the issue.