NBC Showcases Man “Changing Parties” Over “Bush Energy Policies”

Media Research Center ^ | 12-5-03 | Medial Reseach Center

[FlyLow]

Five months after President Bush issued an executive order to allow oil and gas drilling in some Western federal lands, NBC found it suddenly newsworthy -- just as soon as they located a single Republican guy in Montana upset about it. “If it passes as written, it could open up some pristine Rocky Mountain areas to oil and gas drilling,” NBC anchor Tom Brokaw warned before noting how NBC’s Jim Avila found “that has stunned even some of the President’s supporters in those areas.” Avila showcased “a lifetime Republican, one of the Westerners who helped George Bush win all but five Western states” who is “now changing parties because of Bush energy policies.”

Brokaw introduced the December 3 story, as transcribed by MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth: “The administration’s energy bill, which is now bottled up in Congress, is another flashpoint between environmentalists and the President’s supporters. If it passes as written, it could open up some pristine Rocky Mountain areas to oil and gas drilling. As NBC’s Jim Avila reports tonight, that has stunned even some of the President’s supporters in those areas.”

Avila found a disillusioned Republican: “Raw, untamed Montana. The Rocky Mountain front where flat plains crash into America’s highest peaks. Not a national park, no distinct boundaries. Just harsh land and wildlife from grizzlies to wolves, unchained since Lewis and Clark first saw it 200 years ago.” Carl Rappold, rancher: “This is wild country here.” Avila: “The Rappolds homesteaded here a generation later, now fighting to protect their Montana homeland from natural gas drilling. Energy companies want six to eight wells along the front.” Rappold: “I’m really mad about it. We need some of these places left just the way they are, just the way nature created them.” Avila: “Rappold is a lifetime Republican, one of the Westerners who helped George Bush win all but five Western states.” Rappold: “My family has always voted Republican.” Avila: “Now changing parties because of Bush energy policies.” Rappold: “I think it’s going to have a big impact on the presidential election.” Avila: “In fact, the August presidential order lifting environmental restrictions against drilling in seven Western areas, including the Rocky Mountain Front, has angered and now linked three very different interest groups: environmentalists, ranchers, and hunters.” Bill Orcello, hunter: “The first environmentalists, as they say, were hunters.” Avila: “Bill Orcello and Eric Grove, two of 47 million hunters in the United States, roaming the Front for pheasants.” Eric Grove, hunter: “If you’re going to support hunters, then you need to support wildlife habitat.” Avila: “The Bush administration and energy companies argue the nation can have its gas and wildlife, too, claiming wells cause no harm to wildlife. And unlike this Canadian gas field just across the border, will use new technology to leave just a small footprint.” Gail Abercrombie, Montana Petroleum Association: “Energy production and wildlife habitat can coexist. There are protections in place in the regulatory framework to protect the wildlife habitat. Energy production can be done so that the wildlife is protected.” Avila: “But for Carl Rappold, wilderness, by definition, is no longer wilderness when altered by roads, drills and wells.” Rappold: “If we’re this short of gas that we have to ruin every last piece of ground, it’s time we found a new source of energy.” Avila concluded: “The words of a former Republican now voting with environmentalists because he feels the land is threatened. Jim Avila, NBC News, Chicago.”

[FlyLow]

When will NBC News feature a disillusioned Democrat or liberal turned off by a policy?

[biblewonk]

I'm not that thrilled with Republican energy policies. I don't want more nukes but that seems to be part of the plan. I hate seeing non-energy related pork in the bill but that is probably equally both parties fault. I don't like the notion that every watt and every gallon of gas used is sacred and that conservation is for tree sitter.

I have a dream that we take the manned space program money and some of the equally foolish billions wasted and make a real ptc for wind power. What a boon to the economy that would be.

[buffyt]

I live on the Texas Gulf Coast. Moved here in 1973. Our coastline is lined with off shore drilling rigs. We have chemical plants everywhere. There is no problem with the rigs. There is no chem. smell in the air from the plants. We are all healthy as horses here. ~And we always seem to have enough energy to fuel our power needs~

[battlegearboat]

"NBC anchor Tom Brokaw warned before noting how NBC’s Jim Avila found “that has stunned even some of the President’s supporters in those areas.” Avila showcased “a lifetime Republican, one of the Westerners who helped George Bush win all but five Western states” who is “now changing parties because of Bush energy policies.”

It must be a "heady time" for America again.

[Iconoclast2]

Saying that windpower is a boon to the US economy is like saying that riding a limo instead of a bus every morning to work is a boon to your own economy. It's that simple. Really.

[eyespysomething]

Have they talked to Zell Miller?

[Naspino]

Wind power? It kills birds...!!!

[Dane]

and make a real ptc for wind power. What a boon to the economy that would be

What and watch the birds get sliced by one of those blades or see those tall and ugly wind turbines. (Giving you the enviro whcko take).

Anyway wind power is a pipe dream, IMO. Wind blows in all directions and sometimes doesn't blow at all.

[Petronski]

This is just a taste of what will happen when we start building all the new nuclear plants we're going to need. Miles and miles of videotape will be wasted on misleading and misinformed (malinformed?) reports on Three Mile Island (boo!) and Chernobyl (BOO!).

[AmishDude]

Anyway wind power is a pipe dream, IMO. Wind blows in all directions and sometimes doesn't blow at all.

That's not true. Every four years, the wind blows steadily in Iowa.

[Piquaboy]

%$&% Tin Blowcow and the horse he rode in on.

[RobertM]

This is only person who doesn't like Bushes policies, how many people are their that approve of these policies? I for one approve.

[newgeezer]

Welp, I see you're getting the usual, ignorant responses regarding windpower. I get the impression that the first one you need to convince is the Great Maha Rushie. Perhaps you can send him some enlightenment to read while he's passing the time in a minimum-security prison.

[Dane]

Welp, I see you're getting the usual, ignorant responses regarding windpower.

Well mahageezer, why don't you enlighten us know nothing cretins about wind power first instead of going on a knee jerk ad hominem attack.

[Wright is right!]

NBC has adopted a policy of having one Bush-Bashing Story on each evening, newsworthy or not. I've been keeping track, and it began with November Sweeps. Every night there is another story about how Bush's policies are endangering his reelection. This rancher was Wednesday's version. And, yes, you have to wonder how they found him. If indeed he DID change his party registration, then it would show up on the voter rolls and they could find him that way.

BUT. I strongly suspect that he is a version of the Seminar Caller, a lib who CLAIMS to have been a lifelong Republican but is now a Dem because of some perceived Bush policy. In other words, I smell a story setup.

Michael

[biblewonk]

No it isn't. It is perfectly competitive with other forms of power with a ptc of only 1.8 cents per kwhr but what you don't see is the monthly improvement in cost effectiveness of more modern turbines, the advantages over clean energy, the reduction in demand on other fuels which lowers their cost, and the amount that other energies are subsidized.

[Wright is right!]

Just got a great story idea, and I'm going to suggest it to FoxNews. I think they ought to periodically track down the story subjects used by ABSeeBSNBCNN and see if their true story matches that portrayed on the air by the networks. In this case, is this guy REALLY a lifelong GOP or is he a PLANT, a Seminar Caller.

The networks can get away with just about anything in their stories because no one ever fact-checks them.

Michael

[biblewonk]

The average large, modern wind turbine kills about one bird per year. Compare that to a semi on the road.

[laconic]

Mark Steyn once cited the "typical American voter" interviewed on the network evening news: the choreographer of an environmental dance troupe.

[bray]

I am sure there are thousands of Montanans turning from Republican to Rat.....RIGHT! I am sure this guy has proof he has ever voted Pub??? I believe him as much as I believe PravdABDNC.

Pray for W and the Truth