Environment
Friday night's pundit segment on the PBS NewsHour began in a predictable way, as both pseudoconservative David Brooks and liberal Mark Shields rained fire on President Trump declaring a national emergency to secure federal funding for a border wall. But after both pundits agreed that Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg was "impressive," Brooks was gently asked if the Democrats were getting too progressive, and he dropped a bomb. They were "somewhere to the left of Che Guevara."
ABC News's political director Rick Klein appeared briefly on The View Thursday to talk about the controversies surrounding freshman Democrats and to tout the Green New Deal proposed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. While co-host Abby Huntsman expressed concern that Democrats were veering too far left, Klein and fellow co-host Joy Behar shut her down, claiming that most Americans supported Democrats’ radical and infeasible policy proposals.
It’s been a week since Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., introduced a “Green New Deal” resolution promising massive government spending and no way to pay for it.
The president and many others mocked it. Liberal presidential candidates endorsed it. An Ocasio-Cortez policy adviser denied to Fox News that the plan promised “economic security for people ‘unwilling to work.’” For the record, it did. Yet, the evening news shows chose not to report on the proposal that some estimated could cost $6.6 trillion a year, likely more.
In a wild Hardball on Wednesday, MSNBC pundit Chris Matthews spent the latter portion of the program defending the Green New Deal, expressing dismay at Republicans for “mak[ing] fun of” the proposal seeking to address the dangers “we're facing as a species” because of climate change, and defending murderous Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro because National Security Adviser John Bolton isn’t a fan.
On Tuesday ex-NBC host Megyn Kelly started a Twitter feud with comedian Sarah Silverman by pointing out something a lot of people have been thinking for a while: why on Earth would Disney cast the hateful, fouled-mouthed Silverman in a kids’ movie like Wreck-It Ralph?
It’s almost predictable at this point: Democrats embarrass themselves, and the media frames it not as a Democratic error, but as a case of cynical Republicans “pouncing” for political advantage. The latest example was a New York Times story on the thoroughly botched embarrassment that was the launch of the radical Green New Deal: “Lawmaker’s Staff Flubs Green New Deal Plan, and G.O.P. Pounces,” the headline to New York Times environmental reporter Coral Davenport’s story. She let Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez team’s incompetence and fibbing off the hook and botched the controversy’s timeline to cover for leftist darling.
If you grew tired of seeing Beto O’Rourke’s goofy grin everywhere during the 2018 midterm election cycle, then you’re in for a little more lefty superhero fatigue. HBO recently announced that it will be releasing a Beto O’Rourke documentary about the former punk rocker turned political “rockstar’s” failed Texas senatorial candidacy, giving viewers “intimate access” to his 2018 campaign.
NBC’s Meet the Press and moderator Chuck Todd have taken a radical stance on climate change and they’re proud of it. Late last year Todd boasted about banning “climate deniers” from his show. On Sunday, he and his fellow liberal journalists tried to boost the dangerously radical Green New Deal while avoiding the craziness it proposes.
During Friday’s edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight, the eponymous host discussed some of the provisions of the Green New Deal, including the eye-popping idea that the Federal government will pay anyone who is “unwilling to work.” Carlson then began a discussion with Cornell University Law Professor Robert Hockett, who advised Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the Green New Deal. Hockett disputed the aforementioned provision of the Green New Deal but Carlson effectively proved him wrong by reading directly from a fact sheet and FAQ list posted on her website at the time of the Green New Deal’s launch.
Going “green” will require a lot of green, apparently. Two U.S. legislators have a proposal designed to require substantial changes to every building in the U.S., create rail “at a scale where air travel stops becoming necessary,” replace all “combustion engine-vehicles” within a decade, and guarantee everyone a “job,” higher education, “healthy food,” and much more.
The New York Times deemphasized the truly ridiculously implausible and radical proposals in Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez six-page “Green New Deal” when it gave it front-page play Friday: “Unveiling a ‘Green New Deal,’ And Ambition on a Vast Scale.” Instead of showing skepticism, the reporters gave the plan points for ambition and used euphemisms to describe the outlandish proposals: "Liberal Democrats put flesh on their “Green New Deal” slogan on Thursday with a sweeping resolution intended to redefine the national debate on climate change..."
Our friend Joe Concha with The Hill was in rare form on Friday’s Fox & Friends, ripping everyone from Chuck Todd for not fact-checking Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) about the Green New Deal to late night comics for their refusal to lampoon her to the double standard regarding the scandals rocking the three state-wide Democrats in Virginia.