Posted on 07/23/2002 4:06:13 AM PDT by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - The objectivity of CBS News anchor Charles Osgood and the network itself is being questioned following Osgood's appearances at several fundraising events for The Nature Conservancy (TNC). One critic labels the environmental group "ideologically extreme" for its attempts to "control all waterways in the U.S."
Critics also point to a $15,000 grant that the charitable arm of CBS Corp. awarded to The Nature Conservancy as additional proof of a "cozy" relationship between the two organizations.
Osgood and CBS' relationship with The Nature Conservancy are detailed in documents and exclusive interviews obtained by CNSNews.com.
Osgood admitted there is a "sense of kinship" between The Nature Conservancy and CBS News Sunday Morning, which he said pre-dates 1994, when he began hosting the program.
"I think we all have tried to be cooperative and helpful with people doing good work and I think very seldom does that compromise you," said Osgood, who has won several Peabody Awards for his broadcasts.
CBS News Sunday Morning has a Christmas season segment titled, "Our Gifts to Us," which Osgood described as "things that have been added to our national parks through The Nature Conservancy during the course of the year."
And Osgood also praised the environmental group's work during one of his "Osgood File" radio commentaries in March 2000.
The Nature Conservancy refers to itself as "nature's real estate agent." Celebrity activist Paul Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward are among those involved in the TNC's work.
'A Piece of Bird Seed'
Osgood described the CBS philanthropic arm's gift of $15,000 to the TNC as "paltry."
"When you are talking about CBS, you are talking about a piece of bird seed," Osgood stated.
He added, "What I find interesting is that somebody thinks that $15,000 is going to make any difference to anybody at CBS or for that matter The Nature Conservancy."
"It seems a pretty paltry sum to me," Osgood said.
According to documents obtained by CNSNews.com, the CBS Foundation gave at least two grants of $7,500 in both 1998 and 1999 to the Nature Conservancy of New York, N.Y. "to provide support for the Conservation Internships for Inner-City Youth Program."
Former CBS News President and executive Howard Stringer, credited with bringing David Letterman to the network, is listed as a member of the TNC's board of governors.
Crossing the Line?
In October of 2001, Osgood served as master of ceremonies for the TNC's fund-raiser and awards dinner.
"[Osgood] is great. He spoke at the annual meeting," said Richard Weinstein, state chairman of Florida's Nature Conservancy. Osgood, who was not paid for his appearance, presented the TNC's "National Hero" award to Weinstein at the Oct. 4 event in Orlando, Florida.
"[Osgood's] a wonderful guy, terrific guy ... he emceed the events in which they introduced the people that were being honored and introduced a film and he talked and he's wonderful," Weinstein said.
When asked about the Florida fundraiser, Osgood admitted, "I made some remarks and presented an award."
Osgood also conceded that he has also appeared "every so often" at the conservancy's "Last Great Places" events in Central Park in New York City. According to Osgood, Stringer "was the one who asked me if I would do this ..."
The TNC was also the focus of at least one of Osgood's CBS Radio Network commentaries, "The Osgood File." In the report, Osgood praised the efforts of the TNC for its "conservation" methods involving "no-till" farming in Fish Creek, bordering Indiana and Ohio.
According to Osgood, Fish Creek's mussel population is now recovering and the "creek is slowly coming back to life" because of the conservancy's efforts.
Ivan Osorio, a research associate with the Capital Research Center, a Washington, D.C. based public policy group that monitors charitable giving, believes CBS News has a conflict of interest regarding The Nature Conservancy.
"It brings into question CBS News's objectivity regarding environmental reporting, when you have got this cozy relationship with The Nature Conservancy," Osorio said.
When asked about his involvement with the TNC, Osgood became defiant.
"You can't possibly hope to navigate public affairs over 35 years or 50 years or any other period of time without pissing somebody off because you have said something that they don't like, or they don't like environmentalists or whatever their problem is," Osgood stated.
"If you fail to do anything good because somebody might disapprove, I think that would be very inhibiting indeed," he added.
Osgood said he had no idea that anyone opposed the TNC's methods of securing land and water for natural preservation.
"I was not aware that there was anything controversial about that ... I didn't even realize that anybody was against that," he said.
'Deliberate Ignorance'
"For a reporter, that is deliberate ignorance," countered Ron Arnold, author of Undue Influence, which details the activities of the TNC.
"[Osgood] is simply not doing his journalistic duty to even ask the question," Arnold said. "People have been crying at the top of their lungs for so many years about the [The Nature Conservancy], he added.
Arnold cited one instance where the TNC's goals of land acquisition were at odds with the farming community of Little Darby Creek Ohio.
"They have completely killed [the farmer's] property rights," he said.
Arnold, who also serves as the vice president of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, said the TNC "virtually lives in the hip pocket of the federal government."
The TNC had assets of over $2.8 billion and annual revenues of nearly $800 million in 2000, making it the wealthiest green group in the world according to Arnold.
"These guys are rich beyond the dreams of avarice," Arnold said.
The TNC is working with governments at all levels to accelerate the transfer of private lands into public ownership, according to Arnold.
"Socialist countries have less [government] land ownership than the U.S.," he insisted.
Arnold believes private owners are better stewards of the land than governments.
Barry Clausen, environmental expert and author of the book Burning Rage, which details the activities and agenda of the environmental movement, called the TNC's political ideology "extreme."
"They want to control land, control water and they are being very successful because of the money they get," Clausen told CNSNews.com.
"The frustration and anger by so many people in rural America is now being directed toward The Nature Conservancy," Clausen said.
Weinstein defended the TNC's partnerships with the federal government, stating "we protect the land we acquire ... we can do it better in partnerships of all kinds."
A CBS corporate spokesman said the CBS Foundation has been absorbed into Viacom since the merger between the two corporations in 1999. Details about the relationship between CBS and the Nature Conservancy and the grants were not provided after repeated attempts for information.
E-mail a news tip to Marc Morano.
Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
This is one of those partial truths that mislead. The Nature Conservancy actually does take privately raised monies and purchase tracts of land. However, they then encumber those lands with covenants on the deeds that run with the land, and then they sell the encumbered properties to the States and to the Federal government for cash.
The process then repeats.
When it comes to taking lands out of private hands and encumbering them against fair use or development, the Nature Conservancy is the little engine that could.
Didn't realize it was an extremist position to try to preserve small pieces of environmentally vulnerable property by buying them, or by inheriting them !
They may have some wacky-baccy members, but, by and large, they have a reputation (unique among environmental groups) of spending most of their contributions on actual environmental preservation.
That is just silliness. Like this group or not, this is just a terribly written article. I would laugh just as hard if a story was written called... "Bush being criticized for oil deals", being told a critic opposed them... Then 8 paragraphs later being told, James Carville, journalist, finds it objectionable.
This is an advocacy piece. I wish "news organizations" like this would just say why they are opposed to the Nature Conservancy and quit pretending to be journalists.
I don't have any problem with the Nature Conservancy buying property and turning it into greenways, bug preserves or anything else.
As you point out, private money certainly permits people to do what they wish with their property (in some cases ;^) .
I would feel much better about the Nature Conservancy if they weren't using my tax dollars to further their ends.
You have to look at the broad pattern to see my problem with this. The Nature Conservancy buys a farm or estate in Southern Maryland, for instance, to keep the property from being developed. They pay $5 million. They then encumber the property from development and flip the property to the Feds as a "park" or "open space" and the feds pay them back their $5 million plus some.
Then they do the same thing, with the same dollars, somewhere else. Again, and again and again.
Buying with private funds, with the intent to own is one thing. In the case of the Nature Conservancy, 'flipping" these properties to the feds, after they have been encumbered, in my view, demonstrates a much too cozy relationship between this organization and our masters...er...public servants. Their "private" money, in effect, is never "spent".
In such cases, the NC might invent an imagined danger to scare the owner, benefit from advance knowledge because of its cozy relationship with bureucrats or politician, or even cause the danger to come about in the first place. It is a complicated process but Smith has written on this and you can get more info at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
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