Political Quotes

“The problem is that this is one example of a misleading practice that is the norm in the media. More than half of the time, media outlets do nothing more than state the name of the publishing organization, such as ``Thomas Pyle and the Institute for Energy Research,'' or they may add a functional description such as ``think tank'' or ``nonpartisan group.'' The instances where the publication described the basic ideology of the group--for example, as a ``free market'' or ``conservative'' think tank--amount to less than one-third. In all of the media outlets reviewed between 2007 and 2011, the financial ties between the authors and the fossil fuel industry were mentioned a mere 6 percent of the time. Ninety-four percent of the time, the fossil fuel industry funders got away with it. This chart shows some of the examples. The Washington Post ignored the financial connection 88 percent of the time, Politico ignored the financial connection 95 percent of the time, the Christian Science Monitor ignored it every time, USA TODAY ignored it 98 percent of the time, and the New York Times ignored it 90 percent of the time. So the scam of laundering money through independent-sounding organizations works. The media lets it work. The vast majority of scientists agree that global warming is occurring, but a recent Gallup Poll revealed that only 62 percent of Americans believe that the vast majority of scientists agree that global warming is occurring.…”