NBC - NBC ACCUSED OF BIAS IN LIVE EARTH/GORE COVERAGE

Conservative criticism of the Live Earth coverage on Saturday by NBC and its sibling cable networks began rising Tuesday, with many commentators describing it as free political propaganda for Al Gore. In an editorial, Investor's Business Daily suggested that the Live Earth broadcasts might have represented "the largest in-kind political contribution." The newspaper also suggested that NBC's parent, General Electric, might have its own ulterior motives for boosting the Live Earth message on global warming. GE, it said, "stands to make a wad of cash from selling alternative energy products from wind turbines to solar panels to those compact fluorescent bulbs containing mercury. So when Gore prances on stage to demand we stop building coal-fired plants, that's music to GE's corporate ears." The conservative Media Research Center railed at NBC reporter Ann Curry for asking Gore whether he would run for president, "if you become convinced that without you there will not be the political will in the White House to fight global warming to the level that is required." On the NewsBusters blog, Lynn Davidson commented, "There should be more questions about Gore-apalooza and the problems involved with a network literally giving a stage to an issue that, despite the shrill desperate claims otherwise, is one which is both political and not settled." And in the Washington Post, even media columnist Howard Kurtz, who could hardly be pegged as a conservative, asked, "Wasn't NBC, whose news division covers the debate over climate change, providing a huge platform for advocates on one side of a contentious issue? And isn't the network helping a prominent Democrat ... raise money?

11/07/2007