Monbiot: Who’s Paying?
When pundits discuss contentious issues on air, they must reveal their financial interests.
By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 26th September 2006.
On the letters page of the Guardian last week, a Dr Alan Kendall attacked the Royal Society for “smearing†its opponents. It had sent an official letter to Exxon, complaining about the oil company’s “inaccurate and misleading†portrayal of the science of climate change, and its funding of lobby groups which deny that global warming is taking place. The letter, Dr Kendall argued, was an attempt to “stifle legitimate discussionâ€. Perhaps he is unaware of what has been happening. The campaign of dissuasion funded by Exxon and the tobacco company Philip Morris has been devastatingly effective. By insisting that manmade global warming is either a “myth†or not worth tackling, it has given the media and politicians the excuses for inaction they wanted. Partly as a result, in the United States at least, these companies have helped to delay attempts to tackle the world’s most important problem by a decade or more.
