The Daily Caller can't stop, won’t stop spreading climate disinformation! On Saturday, the outlet ran a piece by professional climate disinformer Vijay Jayaraj, and then on Sunday, The Daily Caller published the latest demonstration of why it should be considered a pay-to-play propaganda producer and not a real media outlet, despite its status as a Facebook-approved fact-checker. In the Sunday piece by contributor John Hugh DeMastri, the outlet brazenly misrepresents a letter the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) sent Democratic senators last December.
The 2023 omnibus spending bill included a loophole that would exempt the lobster fishing industry from environmental regulations that protect endangered right whales, which get entangled in lobster lines and die. In a (futile) attempt to sway Democratic senators against this, the CBD explained the danger at length, and went on to warn that if the lobster industry continues to kill right whales, it could trigger the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
At that point, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would need to roll out all the stops to protect the whales from any boats in the area, which could mean "that all offshore wind development along the Atlantic seaboard will have to cease operation."
CBD was crystal clear that "just like climate deniers, the lobster industry has vehemently fought efforts" to track right whale entanglements back to the company responsible "as part of a strategy to put their profits over the existence of the right whale."
There's no way any honest reading of the letter would justify The Daily Caller's spin, which describes CBD's warning (that lobster fishing might endanger right whales to the point that offshore wind would be impacted) as though CBD were "warning them that offshore wind development might put North Atlantic right whales in danger."
The letter from CBD, which is not shown in full by The Daily Caller, nevertheless focuses primarily on the lobster industry threat and mentions offshore wind only once. The Daily Caller's story, on the other hand, goes on and on about the supposed threat of wind farms to right whales based on some coincidental whale deaths and only barely mentions the lobster fishing aspect.
And, in an indication of how thoroughly programmed by this propaganda their own audience is, The Daily Caller unabashedly includes a screenshot of the CBD letter excerpt in its story, essentially daring readers to pay enough attention to notice that the outlet is spinning this story faster than the blades on an offshore wind turbine.