THE FRINGE SPEAKS OUT

LETTER TO LOU DOBBS OF CROSSFIRE
Lisa Thomas (page 1)
06/14/01

CNN does it again. Only a half hour ago, while Lou Dobbs was discussing Mr. Bush's feelings about the Kyoto Treaty with former defense secretary William Cohen, Mr. Dobbs mentioned that most people didn't realize the Kyoto Treaty was dead here anyway, killed by the U.S. Senate. Mr. Cohen dutifully nodded, and neither gentleman felt it in their conscience to explain to the thousands upon thousands of people who now blindly think that our Senate was opposed to the Kyoto Treaty that YES, it was vetoed AS IT THEN STOOD. It was, I believe, Senator John Kerry, a leading opponent of greenhouse emissions, who was taking the lead in that temporary halt. Senator Kerry has explained on several occasions that the veto BY NO MEANS meant the treaty was dead on arrival, only that it wasn't in final acceptable form.

What matters is the resultant wrong information (the straight arrow would simply say the "lie") that was rather deftly spoonfed the American viewers who now think that Mr. Bush is representing the members of the senate. Not so. We must remember that Mr. Bush didn't even BELIEVE in global warming a month ago; he is CERTAINLY not in the same camp with Senators such as Senator Kerry, Senator Daschle, Senator Wellstone, etc. I would add that in order to fairly present Mr. Bush's thoughts on Kyoto, one should explain that he has not yet acknowledged the conclusions of the National Academy of Sciences, as announced last week. For those of us with only the most basic scientific background, the Academy tells us that people DO affect climate. It appears that Mr. Bush still suffers some confusion on this issue. For clarification, or the horse's mouth, the NAS concluded: "National policy decisions made now and in the longer-term future will influence the extent of any damage suffered by vulnerable human populations and ecosystems later in this century."

It bothers me greatly that Mr. Dobbs would so distinctly misrepresent any of our senators' feelings about the Kyoto Treaty. Many if not most would back up Senator Kerry's words of June 12 of this year:

"The change we are causing in the atmosphere - raising atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations to levels unseen in over 400,000 years -- is totally unprecedented. Thos who demand that we wait for absolute certainty -- starting with the President -- should explain how they will reverse the damage we have caused -- how our environment can be made whole again once we have polluted atmosphere in such a substantial and fundamental way."

source: http://www.senate.gov/~kerry/releases/01/06/2001612746.html

In a perfect world, Mr. Dobbs would speak with Senator Kerry about this and then clarify it to his viewers. Then again, I'm still waiting for CNN to clarify the stories about Clinton trashing the White House. Don't worry, though. Am not holding breath, even on clean air days.

Lisa Thomas
Texarkana TX

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