Tim Russert’s Conflict of Interest
Media Monitor | By Cliff Kincaid | October 26, 2005
We look forward to Russert inviting Immelt on Meet the Press to respond to these and other questions. But don’t hold your breath.
During the September 18 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, host Tim Russert conducted a softball interview with disgraced former President Bill Clinton about his "global initiative" meeting being held in New York. During the conversation Clinton hinted at why Russert had invited him to do the show. "I'm not pandering here to NBC," Clinton said, but he sang the praises of Jeffrey Immelt, the head of General Electric, the parent company of NBC. Clinton said Immelt was one of those business leaders who had accepted the man-made global warming theory and was pursuing a "clean energy future" for his company. It wasn't mentioned that Immelt was a participant in the Clinton conference. Now why didn't Russert tell us that?
On the surface, it seems that Immelt has made common cause with the radical environmentalists. As National Public Radio has put it, Immelt has announced major investments in so-called "green technologies" to "limit the levels of carbon dioxide and other environmentally harmful agents" produced by his businesses.
Action Fund Management LLC (AFM), investment adviser to the Free Enterprise Action Fund, has sent a letter to Immelt asking:
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"Is GE aware that mathematical models used to predict future global warming have not been validated against the historical temperature record and are not capable of predicting future global temperatures with any reasonable certainty?
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"Given that warmer climates are associated with increased agricultural production, how does GE know that a warmer climate is undesirable?
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"How does GE know that the warming trend observed over the last 200 years is not almost entirely due to natural causes?
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"Is GE aware that there is little, if any, correlation between greenhouse gas emissions and temperature trends during the 20th century?
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"Is GE aware that the so-called 'hockey stick' graph—purporting to show a dramatic rise in global temperatures during the 20th century after a millennium of supposedly relatively constant global temperature—is the subject of heated scientific controversy and congressional inquiry?
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"Given that it may cost as much as $100 trillion dollars to potentially avert one degree centigrade of warming by the year 2050, how does GE know that greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions are economically feasible?
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"What is GE's analysis showing that growing worldwide energy demand—estimated to triple by the year 2050 is compatible with GHG reductions?
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"Is GE aware that EU nations are not meeting their commitments under the recently implemented Kyoto Protocol?"
We look forward to Russert inviting Immelt on Meet the Press to respond to these and other questions. But don't hold your breath.
Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of the AIM Report and can be reached at
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