Covering the media covering Pombo
What does it take to get the media to ask hard questions? Pombo does not just spin the facts his way with the media, he tells baldfaced lies, and then accuses environmentalists of doing the same. In a recent KTVU TV interview from the fabled Pombo Ranch, Randy Shandobil allowed Pombo to call environmentalists "liars" when they say that he support increased offshore drilling, and then closed the interview so that was the last impression.
Where was the media when Pombo and Jim Gibbons lied about the mining bill last November/December? Only John Krist of the Ventrua Star took him at that time and only the PomboWatch blog provided a blogger's fact checking.
Where was the media when Pombo and Jim Gibbons lied in an official report putting Mercury in Perspective, published by the House Committee on Resources in early 2005? Only columnist Chris Mooney took on this issue, showing up the report's unsound science.
What we should all do is to email or telephone Randy Shandobil and let him know that we expect more of a political journalist than a puff piece of Pomboganda.
posted by Wes @ 8:05 AM
6 Comments:
I think we need to start a rapid response team for instances where the media either a) gets stuff wrong about Pombo or b) they uncritically allow him to spin. If anyone is interested they can e-mail me at emetbloom at hotmail dot com. (Subject line: SNTP RR).
Sounds like a great way to help from outside the district. I'm in.
Glad you are joining in. The only source for this for a long time has been PomboWatch. As the campaign heats up and things start to move faster, there are a number of different issues on which he needs to be called to account: The mining law, clean coal energy and mercury, immigration, supporting veterans (not), TESRA, Salvage Logging, Klamath River water (farmers vs.fishermen), etc.
I get two sources of information. I have a google alert set up each day so that I see most of the material appearing in major newspapers. That misses a lot of local things like 110 deg, the magazine for Contra Costa Living.
The other source is to sign up for all of the Pomboganda put out by the Resources Committee. That is easily done from their WWW site bottom menu.
Then, it is important that we do something with these items beyond just telling each other.
The grassroots folks in the Dean movement actually created their own rapid response network that survived the collapse of the campaign:
http://rapidresponsenetwork.org/
Perhaps it is a model worth adopting (I dunno).
There's also the blog model, done well by folks like News Hounds ("Watching Fox so you don't have to")
http://www.newshounds.us/
Targets for the coming week.
Pombo's Resources Committee put out the following as their schedule and spin for the next week. Each of these issues is flawed and is designed to lead public and press to follow Pombo's agenda.
Americans at 'tipping point' about foreign energy dependence
A new poll conducted by Public Agenda and released by Foreign Affairs shows that "Americans are nearly as worried about [America's] dependence on foreign energy sources as they are about the war in Iraq." Said Public Agenda Chairman Daniel Yankelovich: the issue of energy independence "has reached a tipping point... and you have a very strong increase in the number of Americans who are intensely worried about the problem... I think that means the political complexion of the issue is about to change considerably."
(Reuters, 3/30/06)
Saving burned-out forests,
one tree at a time
The House Resources Committee this week approved H.R. 4200, the Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act of 2005. According to the Associated Press, "...the bipartisan bill demands that areas hit by disasters greater than 1,000 acres be restored quickly." More from the story: "Currently, environmental analyses can take a year or more, followed by lengthy appeals or court battles. During that time, the commercial value of fire-killed timber steadily diminishes as insects and rot set in." The legislation passed the committee on a vote of 25 to 13, with six Democrats voting in favor.
(Associated Press, 3/30/06)
SCHEDULE
23 lawyers, scientists and academicians agree on one thing: the need for ESA reform
Rick Krause, of the American Farm Bureau Federation and recent member of the Keystone Center's study on ESA reform, writes about the group's findings in Montana's Laurel Outlook: We "focused on a bold new scheme to replace the current inefficient critical habitat system... [that] includes a significantly increased role for voluntary landowner incentives, a beefed-up recovery planning role and a revised standard for consultations." The group did not reach a consensus, but came up "a number of areas that can provide the impetus for improving the ESA." Click here to read about the Keystone Center's recommendations.
(Laurel Outlook, 3/31/06)
I agree with your comments about Randy Shandobil - he is often obsequious and snarky, seems very impressed with his questions and doesn't listen to the answers. If he hears from viewers then perhaps he will improve his performance
Dave fr Lafayette
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