At 2 TV Stations in Maine, What Al Gore’s Movie Says Isn’t News

[NYCGirl]

Ignorance knows no bounds.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/30/business/media/30warming.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

How important is global warming in Maine? Not important enough for local television.

Michael Palmer, the general manager of television stations WVII and WFVX, ABC and Fox affiliates in Bangor, has told his joint staff of nine men and women that when “Bar Harbor is underwater, then we can do global warming stories.”

“Until then,” he added. “No more.”

Mr. Palmer laid out his policy in an e-mail message sent out during the summer. A copy was sent to The New York Times. Mr. Palmer did not respond to a phone message left with an employee of the stations nor to an e-mail message. But a former staff member confirmed the e-mail message that went out during the summer after the stations broadcast a live report from a movie theater in Maine where Al Gore’s movie on global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth,” was opening.

—snipped—

Mr. Palmer said he wanted no more stories broadcast on global warming because: “a) we do local news, b) the issue evolved from hard science into hard politics and c) despite what you may have heard from the mainstream media, this science is far from conclusive.” Mr. Palmer said in his e-mail message to his operations manager and two women who served as a news anchor and a reporter that he placed “global warming stories in the same category as ‘the killer African bee scare’ from the 1970s or, more recently, the Y2K scare when everyone’s computer was going to self-destruct.”

[Chipper Chat]

1. Here's my 'Inconvenient Truth' story:

Went to local Cobb Theatre (16 screens) in July. Now this is Florida, so it was 92o outside. I walked into the designated theatre and it was FREEZING in there. I'm talking way below 70o and I was in shorts & T-shirt. The movie hadn't started so I went back outside and told a boy that was cleaning the rest room about it. He said he would go report it and took off. Well, after 20 min of the movie it was still cold / icy air blasting down. Other people around me started to groan about it, and a lady said she was going to report it and left. Would you believe it got COLDER. I went out once more and asked for a manager. The ticket taker said he had stepped out but she would let him know. I checked two other theatres and it was NOT cold inside. Well, nothing was done and it remained cold - the icy air never stopped. I suffered through 'cause I wanted to see the entire film. On the way out I saw two guys with "republican haircuts" and I thought 'aha!' and put 2 & 2 together. They lied to me and said no one had said anything about the temperature, but they snarkily offered me a rain check which I took. Now, I KNOW that each theatre is individually controlled by thermosthat. All someone would have to do was flip it to 75 or higher and the damn thing would have INSTANTLY SHUT OFF. You cannot tell me that this was not deliberate (I can just see the two pubs chuckling with "global warming - ha! We'll show those liberals our 'global warming!'" End of story.

[NYCGirl]

2. Interesting. My only IT story was that the second time I saw it, Danny deVito

and his kids were in the row in front of us.

[Chipper Chat]

3. Devito? Then you had an unobtructed view of the screen.

Could have been Ashton Kutcher & Demi!

[NYCGirl]

4. LOL! Quite true, I'm only about 5 ft 4, and I was taller than him (entered

the theater behind him). His kids are pretty tall, though. Must've been some taller folks in his or Rhea's families.

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. Tell me, Mr Palmer, will you cover it when Maine's timber industry

is decimated by pests that thrive moving into regions where they could not have previously survived? Will you cover it when changes in salinity and temperature devastate Maine fisheries and lobster grounds?

The environment is ALWAYS a local issue.

[high density]

6. Maybe he's looking to work for Sinclair Broadcast Group

What a nutcase.

[KamaAina]

7. That would be this Maine?

Workers examine damage after a 165-foot tall crane toppled in high winds onto three house next to Maine Medical Center, Sunday, Oct. 29, 2006, in Portland, Maine. Two people in a passing car narrowly avoided the falling crane. No one was injured in the houses. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Move along, folks. Nothing to see here...

[NYCGirl]

8. Yep, that's Maine! NT

[NYCGirl]

9. Kick

[Uncle Joe]

10. Sorry I missed this thread, too late to recommend

Palmer sounds like the kind of guy that says you can close the barn door after the cows have escaped.