Coal-sponsored CNN rejects anti-coal ad.

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/28/cnn-rejects-anti-coal-ad/

Coal-sponsored CNN rejects anti-coal ad.

On Thursday, the Reality Coalition launched an ad “to demolish the notion that there’s anything clean about so-called clean coal.” Academy Award-winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen created the anti-coal ad to harpoon the coal industry’s greenwashing campaign. Today, Politico’s Mike Allen reported that CNN rejected the ad, which includes the line, “The most trusted name in coal.”

Watch it at link~

As ThinkProgress has reported, CNN’s presidential campaign coverage received significant backing from the coal industry. The Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson has also tracked CNN’s Ali Velshi’s promotion of so-called clean coal.

[ThomWV]

1. I saw that on the TV last night. I laughed like hell

Don't recall what station it was.

[Mike 03]

2. This is an issue to watch. Some companies are investing a lot of money in clean-coal technologies,

including a number of companies that have performed well in spite of the economic downturn.

[babylonsister]

3. Here's a big step in the right direction...

Congressional leaders: Capitol Power Plant should stop burning coal

By Renee Schoof | McClatchy Newspapers



WASHINGTON — Four days before a planned civil disobedience action at a coal-fired power plant near the U.S. Capitol, the leaders of the House of Representatives and the Senate asked Thursday for the plant to replace all its coal with natural gas.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Senate majority leader, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., sent a letter to Stephen Ayers, the acting architect of the Capitol, who's in charge of maintaining the Capitol complex, telling him to reduce the amount of coal burned at the plant and to prepare for converting it to burn only natural gas by the end of the year.

The power plant, three blocks south of the Capitol, has been running every day since it went into service in 1910. It provides heating and cooling for the Capitol, the Library of Congress and about 20 other federal buildings on Capitol Hill, using both coal and natural gas.

The plant is the No. 1 source of air pollution and carbon pollution in the nation's capital, the letter said.

For environmental activists it's something more, however — a symbol of the nation's reliance on coal, the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel. Scientists have identified heat-trapping carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels as the primary reason for the increase in Earth's average temperature in recent decades.

more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/62919.html

[Mike 03]

6. Yes! This is an excellent example. I wonder if natural gas could replace coal entirely. I know

burning coal is the most disgusting and polluting form of energy. What I don't know is if we need it in the interim before we develop better forms.

Interesting!

Thanks for the post!

[madrchsod]

4. did they really think cnn would`t reject

the commercial when they put in "must trusted"? i guess they figured they would get more attention when cnn rejected the ad.

[NoodleyAppendage]

5. Bring back the Fairness Doctrine and this bullshit will stop. n/t

J

[babylonsister]

7. Not gonna happen...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iZo8HqKUQ5LkGkTf0CiQtS7WQlQQD96JG0PO4

Senate bars FCC from revisiting Fairness Doctrine

By JIM ABRAMS – 2 days ago


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate voted Wednesday to bar federal regulators from reimposing a policy, abandoned two decades ago, that required balanced coverage of issues on public airwaves. The pre-emptive strike against the so-called Fairness Doctrine has been actively pushed by conservative radio talk show hosts who have warned that Democrats would seek to revive the policy to ensure that liberal opinions get equal time.

The 87-11 vote added the measure as an amendment to a bill giving District of Columbia residents a vote in the Houses.

Most Democrats voted along with the amendment, pushed by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., but said it was unneeded because President Barack Obama has stated he has no intention of reviving the Fairness Doctrine. They added that it is generally recognized that it is no longer relevant with the proliferation of television networks, some 14,000 AM-FM radio stations and the Internet.

The measure now goes to the House.

The Federal Communications Commission implemented the doctrine in 1949 but stopped enforcing it in 1987.

more...

[bluesmail]

8. Whatever happened to truth in advertising?

And subliminal messages? And subliminal messages? And subliminal messages?