Not only did a Fox News regular call for more burning of fossil fuels, the one person, out of five, with a different opinion was told to shut up as she tried to argue another side.
The pretext for the discussion was a push for green energy initiatives by the U.S., Canada and Mexico last week.
Predictably, almost all the time in the five-minute segment was taken up by attacking the initiatives rather than actually explaining or exploring them.
Guest Charlie Gasparino called the move “really stupid.” He added, “The impact it’s going to have is going to be de minimis, largely because if you’re worried about greenhouse gases and carbon footprint and all that, it’s not really occurring here, OK? It’s occurring in China and India.”
Host Charles Payne didn’t try to hide his bias. He called the initiatives “nuts on every level.”
But regular guest Jonathan Hoenig took the cake:
HOENIG: We need more carbon emissions, Charles, we need more smoke stacks, we need more burning of fossil fuels and energy because the more we burn, the better man’s life has become. The more energy we use, the greater amount of wealth that’s created.
Guest Ben Stein chimed in, “very good point.” He later elaborated by playing armchair psychologist:
STEIN: This is all about human beings’ wish to control other human beings, especially Democrats’ wish to control other human beings. …It’s not even ever clearly, clearly, clearly proof that burning carbon is making a bad effect on nature and nature’s climate, but to make us into a controlled state because we're warning people that the end of the world is nearby, that is complete national socialist nonsense.
Democrat Jessica Ehrlich was the only person with a different opinon. But even one comment from her was too much for group of five conservatives and one liberal.
EHRLICH: A lot of the pollution comes from other nations, and if we do things solely on our own to say we want to have a cleaner environment, we want cleaner air for our children to breathe so they have less asthma, and we want to do something that’s gonna actually create more jobs, new technology, and be a leader on a worldwide issue where we can do things in clean energy and get off our dependence on foreign oil. …Doing it with our partners in North America is the only way to do it because…”
The Union of Concerned Scientists have written about the hidden cost of fossil fuels. But rather than acknowledge there might be any benefits to green energy, host Payne interrupted Ehrlich: “You gave your spiel,” he sneered.
Stein was even more insulting. “OK, that’s enough,” he said. Later, he complained, “Jessica, are you ever going to stop?”
What could be more fair and balanced?
Watch this latest example above, from the July 2 Cavuto on Business.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
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