As deniers become increasingly desperate for new ideas, it’s not often that we get to debunk new arguments. But sometimes old arguments are dressed up in new ways and published on new websites. Case in point: Carrie Sheffield’s post about Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth, published on Bold.global. Obviously Gore-bashing is nothing new, but what’s this Bold.global website?
It describes itself as “a multimedia, viral news & cultural platform for a diverse coalition centered on personal responsibility and sustainable capitalism. We empower individuals and communities to produce innovative content with positive social impact.”
If that buzzword-stuffed description didn’t make any sense, don’t worry, it doesn’t really mean anything. This website is just one more right-wing attempt to convince Millennials and minorities that being a conservative is like totes lit, fam. At least that’s the impression one gets from reading Bold’s painfully un-self-aware interview with its founder, rising conservative pundit Carrie Sheffield.
[Continued after the jump!]
Beyond fawning self-interviews, does the site actually have news? The front page shows a mix of original content (mostly opinions) and thinly veiled press releases, blurb posts pointing to other sites or a syndication of some other “news” blog. The most frequent source for those reposts seems to be the Daily Caller, including our favorite operative: Michael Bastasch.
Hmm, an unabashedly conservative media outlet targeting the Millennial and minority demographic, publishing churnalists like Bastasch… Might there be ties to the conservative establishment, which we know is building a bizarro-world media empire? Well, on staff at Bold are (at least) two other Sheffields, so nepotism is alive and well at least. One is Carrie’s sister Teresa, who is apparently a comedian in NYC, as well as a Bold contributor. The other is Matthew Sheffield, former managing editor of the Washington Examiner, columnist for the Washington Times, and founder and executive editor of Newsbusters. Newsbusters is a project of the Media Research Center, funded by ExxonMobil and a litany of other right-wing foundations.
For an even more direct connection to fossil fuels, we need to look no further than Carrie herself, whom you might have heard of due to her recent work helping Paul Ryan blame anti-poverty programs for poverty. Carrie started her career respectably, with a stint as a founding reporter at Politico and working the Congress beat for The Hill, before she wrote editorials for The Washington Times. Then, in 2015, she became a Warren Brookes Journalism Fellow at…(drumroll please) The Competitive Enterprise Institute! You know, the group that’s been subpoenaed along with ExxonMobil because of its decades of industry-funded climate change-denying propaganda.
As we know from past efforts of industry funding “news” like TechCentral Station, ongoing industry-sponsored blogs like Energy in Depth and environment-attacking efforts like CORE “news,” media outlets like this are often tied directly to the fossil fuel industry or to the conservative establishment that is its stalwart defender.
So when Sheffield talked to CNN and “declined to discuss Bold’s funding,” there’s probably a good reason why.
But when it comes to climate change, this new site is certainly living up to its name. After all, climate change is a problem more or less caused by boomers but left to Millennials to solve and one which disproportionately impacts minority communities. So telling those same communities it’s no big deal? That is pretty bold.
---—
Top Climate and Clean Energy Stories:
Science groups to Congress: Climate change is real threat | The groups, which represent millions of scientists, sent the letter Tuesday, saying the severity of climate change is increasing and will worsen faster in coming decades.
UKIP to chair assembly climate change committee despite scepticism - "I am appalled that a party that doesn't believe in climate change is man made... should be chairing the assembly committee responsible for it.
Scientists find common ground over climate sensitivity - The new study argues that issues with the way global temperatures have been measured historically mean that they underestimate the total warming over the industrial period.