Liberal columnist Jason Salzman writes in the Saturday Rocky Mountain News:
By the time Paul Chesser arrived at the “Environmental Hysteria” cocktail party thrown in his honor Feb. 11 at the “penthouse” of the Independence Institute in Golden, he was feeling pretty good about his day in the Denver media.
In his briefing to Republican lawmakers earlier, Chesser had trashed Gov. Bill Ritter’s plan to fight global warming, and an article with his views would appear in the next day’s Post.
Chesser, of the conservative John Locke Foundation, had yakked in the morning with KOA’s Mike Rosen. The conservative blogosphere had dutifully transcribed Chesser’s anti-environmental message, and he was booked on John Andrews’ KNUS talk radio show.
His interview on Independence Institute President Jon Caldara’s TV program was taped and set to air on public television station KBDI Channel 12 a couple days later.
You wouldn’t call this a media frenzy, but it’s not bad for an obscure visitor from North Carolina.
It certainly made the Independence Institute proud. It booked Chesser’s media appearances and covered his expenses, Chesser told me.
But you have to wonder, could Ritter’s supporters, who favor his efforts to stop global warming, pull off a similar media streak for their expert?
The dailies would give them a fair hearing. And their allies on the Internet would pay attention.
Their odds of catching airtime on commercial talk radio are low, obviously.
But what’s less obvious is that Channel 12 would be a long shot, as well, for an unknown liberal expert on a media tour.
The Independence Institute pays KBDI for the costs of videotaping Caldara’s Channel 12 show, and Caldara uses the program regularly as part of his orchestrated media campaigns, as he did with Chesser.
Left-leaning activists have no equivalent KBDI show.
It’s true, as KBDI President Wick Rowland e-mailed me, that the “left is very well represented, week in and week out, on much of [Channel 12’s] traditional and regular programming.”
This includes Democracy Now with Amy Goodman, an icon of the political left.
But there’s no show on Channel 12 that serves as a cog in the political machine of a local left-leaning organization, like Caldara’s show does for his outfit.
[sarcasm]Yes, it’s just plain unfair.[/sarcasm] (Full disclosure: I work for the Independence Institute, which is featured in the column.)
To me, a column like this one is clear evidence of how spoiled Colorado liberals have become. The Left funded and orchestrated a takeover of most of the reins of power in state government, operates a slew of advocacy and media-type organizations, and has more allies in the local mainstream media than their counterparts on the other side. But the only thing holding them back from getting the truth out there is their own local show on Channel 12.
Channel 12. KBDI. Public television.
Does anyone else see the irony here?
Lol, One of our upcoming attractions is an essay on the same subject. You’re polite compared to what we’ve written. We’ll post it tomorrow.
Dear lord. As if they needed yet another outlet to parrot their environmental moonbattery–what, the MSM and all the organizations you mentioned–isn’t enough?
Not having total media control (like they would in a liberal dictatorship) really ticks these people off . . .
Salzman also seems to forget what he wrote in his own book. Liberal media discussing global warming/climate change = not news. Presenting an alternative, dissenting view on this subject? That is news.
Perhaps he should go back and reread the first chapter of his book–“Making the News.”
To a watcher, I was going for something a bit more understated. Look forward to reading your essay as well.