Editorial in The New Republic:
Al Gore seems to have touched a nerve. An Inconvenient Truth, his new documentary about global warming–a simultaneously frightening and inspiring film–hadn’t yet arrived in theaters last week when a guerrilla movement to discredit the movie had already begun. A network of oil-funded think tankers and conservative media outlets have joined arms to launch the most massive offensive against a PowerPoint presentation ever recorded by man. But there is one salutary effect of this new campaign. The Swift-Boating of An Inconvenient Truth has brought into public view yet another shining star in the right’s anti-science constellation. While the fundamentalist theo-conservatives sowed doubts about evolution during the debate over “intelligent design,” the Exxon conservatives are storming into battle against global warming.
The Exx-con campaign is one for the textbooks, a laboratory-perfect case study of modern conservative media.
More here.