The Media Blame Game

What do Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and liberal climate bloggers like Joe Romm all have in common? They are inveterate media bashers. Limbaugh has long railed against the MSM; he helped perfect the "liberal media" label into a favorite cudgel of conservatives and an effective meme. Limbaugh is also a slash & burn artist. His fusillades against the MSM are often accompanied by ad hominem attacks on individuals. Joe Romm is fond of the same tactic. In this recent post, he casually slanders Roger Pielke Jr. as a "denier" while criticizing journalists. Romm knows full well that Pielke Jr. is not a "denier." But because Pielke is often critical of statements by politicians and scientists that use global warming-related data in a misleading manner, Romm brands him a "denier." Romm uses the same method to slime The Breakthrough Institute, because they advocate different approaches to combat climate change than Romm--and horrors (!), the media takes them seriously. It's a twofer: flog the media and your enemies at the same time. It's a daily ritual for Romm to find a story (usually in The New York Times) that he detests for some perceived transgression against the climate change cause. To counter a recent story on the transportation costs of wind turbines, Romm makes this ridiculous statement in a post today: