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Video: Morano on CNN debates alleged 'censorship' of global warming science (Video & Transcript) - Aired Sunday July 13, 2008 at 10:20 PM ET

Watch CNN Video here: videosearch

Key Quote: MORANO: “Al Gore himself called Ted Koppel in 1994 and told him to go after scientists skeptical. This was a sitting vice president with an agenda on global warming telling Ted Koppel to go after scientists. Now, how come there was no outrage from the AP, from the League of Conservation Voters, from the media there? The real story here the media is missing is skeptical scientists are being suppressed across the board. The U.N. recently came out and said it's ‘criminally irresponsible’ for someone to deny global warming fears.”


CNN Set up segment on ‘censorship’ debate with Tim Greeff of the League of Conservation Voters. issue here: videosearch

Full Transcript of segment here: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0807/13/cnr.03.html

Transcript Excerpt: CNN ANCHOR RICK SANCHEZ: So, Marc, let's do it to you first. Critics say the Bush White House has been watering down facts about health risks regarding climate change for quite some time, because those in the administration feel any of these new laws would cost money and these laws would also hurt big business. To that accusation, you say what?

MARC MORANO, REPUBLICAN SENATE STAFF MEMBER: Well, you heard the CDC Director herself say she was not censored. This is a non-issue. This is the Associated Press which recently broke the Jason Burnett story. They should be actually embarrassed because of selective reporting. All administration's edit testimony. This is akin to getting shocked that there's gambling going on in Vegas. This is routine. It's what administration officials are supposed to do with administration employees when they give testimony.

SANCHEZ: But let's be fair. This is not the first time we've heard a statement like this. We've heard some from the Surgeon General. We've heard it from a former EPA executive. It seems to be a trend here, does it not?

MORANO: There is absolutely a trend. We heard of Will Happer from the Clinton administration Department of Energy challenged the Al Gore's view of climate alarmism and was forced out of the Clinton administration. Roy Spencer, a NASA scientist, talked about the heavy hand of censorship he had to deal with when he was at NASA [during Clinton Administration[ because he was a skeptical scientist.
[…]

SANCHEZ: Worse than other administrations, Tim?

League of Conservation Voters TIM GREEFF: It's irrelevant at this point. All administrations do it.

MORANO: It’s irrelevant because it doesn’t serve your agenda.

GREEFF: The point is, is the practice right or wrong? I'm not here to say whether or not the Bush administration or the Clinton administration is doing anything any differently.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: But that's an important part of the argument.

MORANO: Yes, what the Bush administration did is what they're supposed to do. If you could go through Al Gore himself called Ted Koppel in 1994 and told him to go after scientists skeptical. This was a sitting vice president with an agenda on global warming telling Ted Koppel to go after scientists. Now, how come there was no outrage from the AP, from the League of Conservation Voters, from the media there? The real story here the media is missing is skeptical scientists are being suppressed across the board. The U.N. recently came out and said it's ‘criminally irresponsible’ for someone to deny global warming fears.
[…]

SANCHEZ: Marc, 10 seconds, last word.

MORANO: Sure. The notion the American people aren't getting, the global warming fears ingrained into them is laughable. You pick up any school book, you go watch any movie, TV show, man-made global warming fears are everywhere. And it's not true that the scientists -- the governing board of the National Academy of Science. Yes, two dozen or so scientists will issue statement. The rank-and- file members of the American Meteorological Society, across the board, skepticism is growing by the day.

SANCHEZ: Marc, Marc, you'll hear all that unless, of course, you're listening to a right-wing talk show host and then you'll hear just the opposite. So, there's a big argument on both sides. Tim, Marc, my thanks to both of you. Good argument. Glad we had you both on. I appreciate it.

MORANO: Thank you, Rick.

SANCHEZ: Tim Greeff and Marc Morano.

Full Transcript:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0807/13/cnr.03.html

CNN NEWSROOM

Jason Burnett Quit EPA and Now Accusing Vice President Dick Cheney of Censorship; Proposed Oil Refinery in South Dakota Wrapped in Secrecy

Aired July 13, 2008 - 22:00 ET

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR:

SANCHEZ: I want to pick up a theme now that we started just a couple of weeks ago right here, on a Sunday night. I told you how the White House had refused to even open an e-mail from its own environmental agency because it just didn't want to deal with greenhouse gases as an issue.

We checked into it, and we found out that there seems to be a history here to this type of thing. All right. You see this guy? His grandfather started Hewlett-Packard.

At age 31, Jason Burnett is rich enough to give more than $100,000 to be fair mostly to Democrats. He was also smart enough to work for the EPA. A job he recently quit and he's now accusing Vice President Dick Cheney of censorship. And he's not the only one.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D), ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS CHRMN: This cover-up is being directed from the White House and the Office of the Vice President.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): Senator Barbara Boxer accusing Dick Cheney's office of censoring congressional testimony -- testimony, she says, that could have led to tougher air quality laws in the U.S.

BOXER: We're all Americans and we all breathe the same air regardless of our party.

SANCHEZ: By Boxer's side, life-long Democrat and former EPA executive Jason Burnett. He says the testimony he helped prepare for CDC Director Julie Gerberding was altered by the Vice President's office to make greenhouse gases sound less dangerous to your health.

JASON BURNETT, FMR. EPA EXECUTIVE: I wanted to make sure that the testimony was fundamentally accurate, and when I concluded that it was, I declined to make any edits or suggest that CDC do so.

SANCHEZ: The White House acknowledges that changes were made. But the CDC director says she was not censored by anybody.

DR. JULIE GERBERDING, CDC DIRECTOR: No one, from the Department, the White House or any place else in government has ever put one word in my mouth or taken one word out.

SANCHEZ: Cheney's office, not commenting. EPA whistleblower Burnett will not say whom he dealt with in Cheney's office.

BURNETT: I'm not interested in pointing fingers.

SANCHEZ: But he's not the first to accuse the administration of putting partisan politics over science.

Remember a year ago when these three former U.S. Surgeons General testified before Congress. Richard Carmona served the Bush administration from 2002 to 2006. He says his public speeches were censored, though not by the Vice President.

RICHARD CARMONA, FMR. SURGEON GENERAL: The vetting was done by political appointees who were specifically there to be able to spin, if you will, my words in such a way that would be preferable to a political or ideologically preconceived notion that had nothing to do with science.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: This has been an ongoing argument during this administration. It's as much about health, many would argue, as it is about accusations of censorship.

Let's bring in some guests. Tim Greeff is a Democrat with the League of Conservation Voters. Marc Morano is a GOP spokesperson for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

So, Marc, let's do it to you first. Critics say the Bush White House has been watering down facts about health risks regarding climate change for quite some time, because those in the administration feel any of these new laws would cost money and these laws would also hurt big business. To that accusation, you say what?

MARC MORANO, REPUBLICAN SENATE STAFF MEMBER: Well, you heard the CDC Director herself say she was not censored. This is a non-issue. This is the Associated Press which recently broke the Jason Burnett story. They should be actually embarrassed because of selective reporting.

All administration's at a testimony. This is akin to getting shocked that there's gambling going on in Vegas. This is routine. It's what administration officials are supposed to do with administration employees when they give testimony. SANCHEZ: But let's be fair. This is not the first time we've heard a statement like this. We've heard...

MORANO: No.

SANCHEZ: ...similar things from NASA officials.

MORANO: We have.

SANCHEZ: We've heard some from the Surgeon General. We've heard it from a former EPA executive. It seems to be a trend here, does it not?

MORANO: There is absolutely a trend. We heard of Will Happer from the Clinton administration Department of Energy challenged the Al Gore's view of climate alarmism and was forced out of the Clinton administration.

Roy Spencer, a NASA scientist, talked about the heavy hand of censorship he had to deal with when he was at NASA because he was a skeptical scientist.

SANCHEZ: All right, Tim. Hold on. Hold on. I'm going to help you here. Tim, I want to bring you in and I want to bring in something that he probably would have said as well.

During the Clinton administration, you remember the -- you remember the scandal over arsenic, saying that that administration was also in the pocket of big business, and that's why they had approved that policy.

TIM GREEFF, LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS: Well, I think that what Marc's trying to do is what they often try to do. Instead of actually answering a question of what the Bush administration has done is actually wrong, or misleading the public, which several commissions have found. And they then point to, well, every administration does it.

That doesn't answer the question of whether or not the actions taken by the Bush administration had actually misled the public.

If you go back to December of this past year -- if you go back December this past year, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform passed out an official report that found, and I quote, that the Bush administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and to mislead policymakers and the public on the dangers of global warming.

SANCHEZ: Worse than other administrations, Tim?

GREEFF: It's irrelevant at this point. All administrations do it.

(CROSSTALK)

GREEFF: The point is, is the practice right or wrong? I'm not here to say whether or not the Bush administration or the Clinton administration is doing anything any differently.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: But that's an important part of the argument.

MORANO: Yes, what the Bush administration did is what they're supposed to do. If you could go through Al Gore himself called Ted Koppel in 1994 and told him to go after scientists skeptical. This was a sitting vice president with an agenda on global warming telling Ted Koppel to go after scientists.

Now, how come there was no outrage from the EPA, from the League of Conservation Voters, from the media there? The real story here the media is missing is skeptical scientists are being suppressed across the board. The U.N. recently came out and said it's criminally irresponsible for someone to deny global warming fears.

SANCHEZ: I don't want to run out of time.

MORANO: That's the story. Not routine administration --

SANCHEZ: I understand that. But let me bring Tim in, because there is a cogent argument out there that says the great majority of scientists are on the other side of that argument, saying that there is a global warming problem, and that it most likely is being caused by man.

Tim, back to you.

GREEFF: Well, the vast majority of science organizations including the United States National Academy of Sciences, which is the most credited scientific organization that the federal government actually goes to to look at these, has said without a doubt not only is global warming happening, but human beings are the driving cause behind it.

But again, the basic point is, is what the Bush administration doing, manipulating the science and reports and panels have said, yes, what they're doing is manipulating the science.

MORANO: The Bush administration is --

GREEFF: We need to get back to -- excuse me, Marc, let me finish. We need to get back to whether or not what this administration doing is misleading the public and misleading policymakers, and that's exactly --

SANCHEZ: Marc, 10 seconds, last word.

MORANO: Sure. The notion the American people aren't getting, the global warming fears ingrained into them is laughable. You pick up any school book, you go watch any movie, TV show, man-made global warming fears are everywhere. And it's not true that the scientists -- the governing board of the National Academy of Science.

Yes, two dozen or so scientists will issue statement. The rank-and- file members of the American Meteorological Society, across the board, skepticism is growing by the day.

SANCHEZ: Marc, Marc, you'll hear all that unless, of course, you're listening to a right-wing talk show host and then you'll hear just the opposite. So, there's a big argument on both sides. Tim, Marc, my thanks to both of you. Good argument. Glad we had you both on. I appreciate it.

MORANO: Thank you, Rick.

SANCHEZ: Tim Greeff and Marc Morano.

Marc Morano

Communications Director

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) Inhofe Staff

202-224-5762

202-224-5167 (fax)

marc_morano@epw.senate.gov

www.epw.senate.gov