Leave it to the corporate media to take an amazing idea and find some way to portray it in a negative light. CNN Money posted an article today about the Live Earth concerts and used a variety of methods to attack this amazing event. Whether it be name calling, suggestions of hypocrisy, or circular discussion, this one article portrays everything that is wrong with corporate media.
Will you follow me over the fold to see the evidence?
Global warming concerts: A lot of hot air?
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- We've all seen them. The "No Blood for Oil" bumper stickers on the Grand Cherokees, "Save the Whales" pasted on the back of an old, smoke-belching '77 Volvo.
So when anti-global warming activists throw eight concerts on six continents this Saturday - the biggest charity concert ever, with 150 big-name acts and an expected audience of 2 billion - is there reason to think the hundreds of thousands of fans driving to stadiums and chugging bottled water by the caseload may actually do more environmental harm than good?
Classic introduction; start with a portrait, use a variety of negative metaphors to conjure up the image of pot smoking hippie radicals, and then call them a bunch of hypocrites. It's ok to ignore the amount of attention that these type of events raise towards a crucial issue, because they're leaving a carbon footprint the size of Al Gore's ego!
Of course it would help if CNN bothered to do some research or, I don't know, ask the sponsors.
With support from the U.S. Green Building Council, creators of the LEED Green Building Rating System, Live Earth will implement new Green Event Guidelines. All Live Earth venues will be designed and constructed by a team of sustainability engineers who will address the environmental and energy management challenges of each concert site, as well as the operations of sponsors, partners and other Live Earth affiliates. Each venue will not only be designed to maintain a minimum environmental impact, but will showcase the latest state-of-the-art energy efficiency, on-site power generation, and sustainable facilities management practices.
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Well gosh darnit, foiled again! It turns out that an organization dedicated to a sustainable environment and combating global warming is aware enough to actively prevent as much environmental damage from the event as possible. Who would have thought? Of course, you don't have to do that sort of investigative "journalism" when you can rely on slander and insinuations.
But an event of this scale is bound to draw fire, and it should come as no surprise to an environmental community long-familiar with accusations of hypocrisy.
Remember Gore's "inconvenient" electric bill from his Tennessee mansion? Or the flack Queen Elizabeth got last spring for flying across the Atlantic then speaking of the dangers posed by global warming?
So far, all things being equal, Live Earth has gotten off pretty easy.
Good point sir! It's a wonder that this event hasn't been slandered more in the media. Maybe it has something to do with this. As long as we keep paying attention to all the past sins of omission from the environmental community, we need not actually talk about the environmental consciousness of this specific event! They're hypocrites anyway!
Truly this article is one of the most frustrating pieces I've read in quite some time. Not once does the article bother to quote anyone involved with the organization. It relies on talking with outside environmental activists as a counterbalance to baseless criticisms and attacks. It relies on making the assumption that this sort of mass concert event must lead to pollution and waste without bothering to look at how much work the organizers put into reducing any environmental harm.
Let's not forget, the mainstream media is owned and operated by Corporate America. Environmental regulations could possibly jeapordize their billion dollar profit statements (god forbid they only make millions instead of billions). They will play the "liberal boogeyman" card every time. They will play the "hypocritical activist" card every time. We must call them out on it every time.