The American Spectator

CEI ad doesn’t suggest that we won’t be able to breathe out CO2 if Al Gore has his way. Rather, it points out that in order to meet our energy needs, U.S. industry produces CO2. And our right to produce energy efficiently by permitting emissions of CO2 in that way is under attack. The Kyoto Protocol would require the U.S. to cut CO2 production below 1990 levels, as does the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) recently adopted by seven Northeastern States. Or does TNR assume that major environmental organizations aren’t really serious when they endorse CO2-limiting agreements ? CEI takes CO2 restrictions seriously and argues that they are seriously mistaken.

And what’s wrong with CEI using a young girl in its ad? TNR implies that it’s unseemly. But did TNR have a conniption fit when Environmental Defense (ED) did the same thing? In an ED ad called “Tick” children warn against “massive heat waves,” “severe droughts” and “devastating hurricanes.” Another called “Train” shows a child about to be hit by a locomotive. It’s supposed to be an analogy for how global warming will affect the future. Was that tacky? Funny, I can’t find the TNR editorial denouncing those ads.

What is behind TNR’s Kos-tic outbursts? Someone who thought like a TNR editor might reason that the magazine is trying to win back its former subscribers on the Left. In 2002 and 2003, TNR broke with the left to support the Iraq war — and watched its subscriptions slide. In one year, 2003-2004, TNR’s “total paid and/or requested” circulation fell from 61,723 to 51,723. Despite its later apology for supporting the war, circulation has continued to decline — to 50,403 in 2005. Meanwhile circulation is way up at leftist magazines that opposed the war, like the American Prospect, the Nation, and the Washington Monthly. Maybe TNR is rebuilding its credibility among lefties — and its circulation — by printing articles that make it indistinguishable from a blog rant.

Is that insinuation fair? You say I’m only attacking motives instead of making an argument? Fair enough, but maybe TNR should think about extending the same courtesies to global warming critics. That won’t happen in TNR’s new world of bad faith attack journalism. Its editors will just dismiss me as another Exx-Con.

David Hogberg is a senior research analyst at the Capital Research Center. He also hosts his own website, Hog Haven.