In analyzing recent comments by GOP presidential candidate John Huntsman (“To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy,” ), Fox News talking heads may have unwittingly revealed too much about their research operation.
Huntsman was differentiating himself from the decidedly brain-dead climate denial drivel of Rick Perry and Michelle Bachman.
MORRIS: If you dive into the weeds a little bit on this global warming thing, you see that it seems that facts are certainly on Huntsman’s side on all of this and fact checkers have come out, and we’re actually having our own brain room look at this right now and many of Perry’s comments don’t seem to hold a lot of water.
The words “Fox News” and “Brain” don’t easily trip off the tongue, but the mind boggles at the idea that they keep gray matter under lock and key, and apparently allow only certain employees to access it under strictly controlled conditions.
And no wonder. You start going down that road, no telling where things might lead….
Wait a minute, what!?! Either that Morris guy is gonna get axed for talking out of turn, or there’s some sort of mind-game strategy going on behind the scenes. An about-face like this just doesn’t happen for no reason.
I recognize that perception is often the only reality that matters – never mind those meddlesome facts – anything can be ‘spun’ to be perceived as a greater issue regardless of the truth. But what’s their game? Is it about shifting the emphasis away from the facts of global climate change in order to make it a non-issue so that commentators can keep talking about the candidates without actually considering the position of the candidate?
And what if Fox News suddenly begins preaching the gospel of climate change? What then? Is that good or helpful? Could it be sign of a sea change? It’s all too easy to demonize the opposition so what happens when they change their minds? Friends? An easy peace or a hard peace? Reconciliation?
Know what you mean Galen. I watched it slack jawed three times. Fox delivers the script that their viewers want to hear. If Fox’s flirtation with reality continues, that’s a good sign. Some of my friends are Fox viewers who are having second thoughts about a lot of things. Stand your ground, keep communicating, and welcome them home.
Perry: “the Earth’s temperature has been moving up and down for Milleniums now.” Milleniums? We really do have another Dubya on our hands don’t we?
Also like, to paraphrase: “kinda weird that we’re talking about global warming now, when there are really serious things going on in the world.”
> “…a theory that is not proven…”
Same anti-science rhetoric as the creationists. There are no “proven” scientific theories. That’s not how science works – but when you’re serenading the scientifically illiterate, who cares?!
http://www.fsteiger.com/theory.html
Hah, at the end of the clip they all seem to agree that global warming is an issue that nobody cares about right now.
I think the brain room is going to come back with a conclusion that it is not profitable for Fox News to endorse the established climate science and Huntsman’s views on the matter will not be mentioned anymore. This is an interesting clip, and I have read some Fox print articles in the past that seemed to affirm certain aspects of the science. Nevertheless, I will believe Fox’s change of stance when I see it, many times over.