Fair And Balanced? — Ahem
Dish Network, our TV provider, removed CNN from its list of channels. Some sort of contract dispute with Turner Broadcasting which licenses CNN. So now instead of CNN on channel 5551, there’s MSNBC. Like FOX News, only in the opposite political direction, MSNBC appears unabashedly one-sided. CNN leaned left, too, but I thought certain of their broadcasts at least tried to achieve fairness. Nevertheless, we are left having to get our TV news from local channels, or PBS, which we usually enjoy. Say what you will about PBS, but those people are as stone-faced objective as any you’re going to find on TV when it comes to reporting the news.
I did have MSNBC on briefly yesterday while I ate my sandwich — Black Forest ham, cheese, and a thin-sliced Claussen pickle on toasted Pugliese bread. Okay, and a handful of Fritos Scoops. So sue me. Anyway, I listened to a debate complaints about the Keystone XL pipeline on a show hosted by reverend Al Sharpton. He’d invited certain congress critters onto the show to weigh in. Honestly, I forget which ones, except they were all Democrats who strongly opposed the construction of KXL because it would run through the United states carrying exceptionally “dirty” oil. That much is true. But the one objection that struck me as foolish, one which was brought up again and again by different opponents and stated by some as the biggest reason why KXL should be rejected by the Obama administration, is that refining this oil and burning the fuels will generate more greenhouse gases and worsen global warming. Certainly the extent of that worsening is a matter of debate (not that any of these opponents would have agreed), but no question there would be some additional greenhouse gas generated. Unfortunately for the opponents, the Keystone oil is going to be produced, refined, and the fuels eventually burned anyway. Stopping construction of KXL will not keep the oil in the ground. TransCanada, who owns the resource, is already producing the raw crude, and, in fact, sending it via rail car to United States’ refineries, a mode of delivery much more prone to hazardous spills than a modern pipeline is. Beyond that, TransCanada is involved in at least three other projects to sell the oil abroad, one of which will involve putting the oil on tankers leaving Pacific Coast ports. Historically speaking, another rather dangerous way to transport heavy oil.
Why none of these facts were brought up by the reverend to challenge the arguments being made by the congress critters is baffling, especially since it took me all of one Google search to find them. Wait, what’s that? “MSNBC is bloody biased, Rod!”
I see. And here I thought it was only that Other network, the one with the pretty women, that was biased. Got it now.