CNN: Americans' belief in global warming sinks as Republicans shift (Democrats hold steady)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/12/07/global.warming.poll/?iref=polticker

Americans' belief in global warming sinks as Republicans shift

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Washington (CNN) -- A rise in skepticism among Americans over global warming is mostly due to changes among Republicans, according to a new national poll.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, released Monday, indicates that two-thirds of all Americans believe global warming is a proven fact. That's down 8 percentage points since June 2008, with views among Democrats holding steady and Republicans' belief in global warming dropping 11 points.

"The growing skepticism among Republicans, with no matching shift among Democrats, suggests that the changes measured in this poll may be a reaction to having a Democrat in the White House rather than a shift in underlying attitudes toward global warming," said Keating Holland, CNN polling director.

The poll's release come as a United Nations climate summit opened in Copenhagen, Denmark. That global conference began under a cloud of accusations, after international attention the past two weeks over hacked e-mails that suggest some scientists faked data to support the argument of global warming.

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[Kerrytravelers]

1. I just adore republican logic:

If a republican is in the White House, there is a better chance of Global Warming being true than when there is a Democrat in the White House.


These are the same minds that think Sarah Palin would make a good President, so I don't find it all that shocking.

[lapfog_1]

2. "suggest some scientists faked data"

Um, I read the hacked emails (at least the ones constantly referenced by Rush and company) IN CONTEXT, and they say no such thing.

[Vinnie From Indy]

3. This is solely a reflection of the power of the right-wing propaganda machine

One thing that the righ-wing does extremely well is have all their propagada outlets march in the same direction. The accumulated effect of 24/7 propaganda and lies being dispensed by Limbaugh, Fox News and others is evident in the rise of skepticism in the GOP.

[FiveGoodMen]

4. The trouble is: how to break that machine.

This site is full of people who do not believe in the Fairness Doctrine, who do not think there should be any penalties for blatant lying, who believe that the marketplace of ideas will sort this all out.

If we don't break that propaganda machine, it will break us.

And no one on our side wants to do anything about it.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. Nothing new here

Some choice quotes from Thomas Jefferson, who struggled with the very same issues:

http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1600.htm

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"Our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it." --Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 1786.

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"Since truth and reason have maintained their ground against false opinions in league with false facts, the press confined to truth needs no other legal restraint. The public judgment will correct false reasonings and opinions on a full hearing of all parties, and no other definite line can be drawn between the inestimable liberty of the press and its demoralizing licentiousness. If there be still improprieties which this rule would not restrain, its supplement must be sought in the censorship of public opinion." --Thomas Jefferson: 2nd Inaugural Address, 1805. ME 3:381

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"Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day." --Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell, 1807. ME 11:224

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"I really look with commiseration over the great body of my fellow citizens who, reading newspapers, live and die in the belief that they have known something of what has been passing in the world in their time, whereas the accounts they have read in newspapers are just as true a history of any other period of the world as of the present, except that the real names of the day are affixed to their fables. General facts may indeed be collected from them... but no details can be relied on." --Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell, 1807. ME 11:224

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"The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false." --Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell, 1807. ME 11:225

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"My opinion of the manner in which a newspaper should be conducted so as to be most useful ... 'by restraining it to true facts and sound principle only.' Yet I fear such a paper would find few subscribers. It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press could not more completely deprive the nation of its benefits than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood." --Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell, 1807. ME 11:224

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"I deplore... the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed and the malignity, the vulgarity, and mendacious spirit of those who write for them... These ordures are rapidly depraving the public taste and lessening its relish for sound food. As vehicles of information and a curb on our funtionaries, they have rendered themselves useless by forfeiting all title to belief... This has, in a great degree, been produced by the violence and malignity of party spirit." --Thomas Jefferson to Walter Jones, 1814. ME 14:46

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"The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure." --Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1823. ME 15:491

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