The Evil Empire

No, this is not about the Yankees as viewed through the jaundiced eyes of Red Sox fans (though the jinx seems to have returned to the poor Sox this awful August). My target is more serious, concerning an arm of our media that is proving particularly noxious and actually quite dangerous.

I was watching a "20/20" special last night--an Apocalyptic edition--discussing all the possible means by which our planet could be rendered uninhabitable. This ranged from the unlikely (cosmic bursts, roving black holes) to the actual problems being evidenced now through global warming. The actual phrase used was "climate change," which is both more accurate and less specific, but the congruent relationship of skyrocketing (literal and otherwise) carbon monoxide emissions to rising world temperatures was underscored as clearly and convincingly as Al Gore did in his recent movie, and Tom Brokaw in his two-hour special on cable. Hostess Elizabeth Vargas stressed that no reputable scientist or scientific journal is now denying the threat olf climate change or the culpability of human activity in contributing to the dangerous situation.

At this point the editors, in the interest of "evenhandedness," interjected some commentary from purported "experts" debunking global warming as a fraud, and a liberal plot. Interestingly, all these excerpts came from the same source--the Fox News Network. The Fair and Balanced news source. And perhaps the most dangerous source of half-assed propaganda the world has seen since TASS closed its doors.

Now I am not anti-Fox, nor anti-Rupert Murdoch, though I probably would not like him if I met him. His company paid many of my paycheks in the past and I owe my financial security largely to his coffers. I also find Fox an intriguing and creative force in TV, responsible for most of the progressive programming of the past 15 years, including "The Simpsons," "24" and "American Idol." But Fox TV News is another story entirely. It has exploited, falsely, the principles of journalistic "objectivity" to become the voice of the Republican Right. Now if it called itself "Republican TV" at least it would have been honest. But now it has become more than dishonest--it has become a threat to mankind. And I am not being overly dramatic.

When the Iraqi invasion was still a gleam in Bush's eye, the Fox net trumpeted the need for war as the most obvious requirement since Monther's Milk. Every commentator rolled his or her eyes when any guest or politico questioned the military incursion, as though they were insane. Okay, there was military madness in the air in 2003, and few Democrats had the balls to object (perhaps because of the jingoistic cries trumpeted by the Foxites). But with the Iraqi occupation now lasting longer than our involvement in World War II, the tenor of Fox news has become even more militant. "We're now at the beginning of World War III!" I heard one commentator declaim, with guest Bob Baer (former CIA agent) concurring. I don't know whether he was right or wrong, but he was certainly incendiary. Nothing like more hawks, more armies, more weapons. Using Neville Chanmberlain as the universal sample of thoughtless disengagement, everybody who objects to the endless Iraqi quagmire as anything but a noble Crusade is now characterized as a cut-and-run America-hating ACLU card-carrying Democrat traitor.

Call me crazy, but inciting us to further confrontations--especially when our military has been stretched so thin that reservists are getting their second and thir involuntary call-ups--is just a mite, well irresponsible? But let's put these politics aside. What gets my goat more than anything is the network's attempts to deride Gore and the entire science of Global Warming in the interests of a few businessmen. We are not talking about some crazy Muslims or a bad man in charge of Iran. We are dealing with a palpable threat to the survival of our civililization as cities start getting swept away in deluges caused by melting continents like Antarctica. To try to denigrate the real science that has provided us with a last-chance warning is beyond irresponsibility. It can stand in the way of humanity's survival. It is criminal. And, to my mind, since it endangers the welfare of billions of people in the name of stubbornness and ignorance and short-term economic profit it is the essence of evil.