The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
ABC’s Sam Champion exposes recycled footage in ‘An Inconvenient Truth;’ ‘Nightline’ echoes DNC talking point without checking math on gas prices; Time Magazine doctors Iwo Jima Photo for global warming cover story.
 

April 23, 2008

The Good
      It only took nearly two years to discover it, but former Vice President Al Gore’s Oscar-winning global warming alarmism film “An Inconvenient Truth” wasn’t entirely an original production. Scenes from the movie were computer-generated images lifted from the 2004 fictional movie, “The Day After Tomorrow” – a movie about the world being taken over by a new ice age.

     That was uncovered by none other than ABC’s Sam Champion on the April 18 “20/20,” who is often an advocate on global warming issues in his role as weatherman on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

      “Audiences expect Hollywood to twist fact into fiction,” Champion said. “But Gore's documentary does the opposite, using a fake shot to make a real point – that ice shelves are disappearing, and vanishing ice means global warming.”

     But, as Champion pointed out, that’s raised some ethical questions.

     “And it raises another question for you to consider,” Champion said. “Is it wrong for a documentary to use a fabricated Hollywood shot to make a point, even if there's science behind it? Well, we tried to ask Al Gore and the movie studio, but neither responded to our calls.”

     In February 2007, questions were raised about whether or not Gore’s film qualified for the Oscar he eventually won.

     “According to the ‘rule 12’ standard for documentary films established by the Academy, while it is permissible to employ storytelling devices such as re-enactments, stock footage, stills and animations, the emphasis must be on fact and not fiction,” wrote CNSNews.com Staff Writer Kevin Mooney on Feb. 22, 2007. “The critics argue that in the case of ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ the criteria are not met.”

The Bad
     President George W. Bush’s days in the White House may be numbered, but that isn’t stopping the media from cheap shots on the way out. ABC’s April 21 “Nightline” reported on the increased cost of gasoline, using the Bush presidency as a “reference point.”

     “Tonight, $3.51 – that’s the average price nationwide of a single gallon of regular unleaded gasoline. That means a 15-gallon tank now costs more than $50 to fill. As a little reference point, the week George W. Bush was sworn in as president, the price of a gallon of gas was $1.47.”

     She didn’t stop there.

     “Even accounting for inflation, that’s a 200-percent increase,” McFadden said. “We’re guessing your paycheck hasn't grown 200 percent in the past eight years.”

     While attempting to pin gas price increases on the Bush presidency, McFadden got the math wrong.

     Two hundred percent of $1.47 is $2.94. A 200-percent increase would add $2.94 to $1.47, making the current price of gasoline $4.41. The actual increase has been $2.04 per gallon, or a little more than 138 percent.

     Coincidentally, the Democratic National Committee released a press release Sunday titled “Gas Prices Up 200%” using the same incorrect math (h/t NewsBusters’ Noel Sheppard).

     Her line, "Even accounting for inflation," makes her math even more incorrect. After all, $1.47 in early 2001 is $1.82 in 2008 dollars. As such, adjusted for inflation, this would only be a 93-percent increase, meaning that McFadden was 100-percent wrong.

The Ugly
     Time magazine’s April 21 issue has ruffled the feathers of a few Iwo Jima veterans.

     A Time cover story by Bryan Walsh called green "the new red, white and blue." But Donald Mates, an Iwo Jima veteran, said this went too far. He told the Business & Media Institute on April 17 that using the famous Iwo Jima flag-planting photograph for the global warming cause was a "disgrace."

     "It's an absolute disgrace," Mates said. "Whoever did it is going to hell. That's a mortal sin. God forbid he runs into a Marine that was an Iwo Jima survivor."

     Mates said making the comparison of World War II to global warming was erroneous and disrespectful.

     "The second world war we knew was there," Mates said. "There's a big discussion. Some say there is global warming, some say there isn't. And to stick a tree in place of a flag on the Iwo Jima picture is just sacrilegious."

     Lt. John Keith Wells, the leader of the platoon that raised the flags on Mt. Suribachi and co-author of "Give Me Fifty Marines Not Afraid to Die: Iwo Jima," wasn't impressed with Time's efforts.

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly tracks the best and worst media coverage of business and economics. Readers are invited to submit suggestions or news tips to Staff Writer Jeff Poor at jpoor@mediaresearch.org.