CBS“s Face the Nation (3/9/14) was loaded up on right-wing guests. The show kicked off interviewing former Vice President Dick Cheney, then switched over to a chat with Rep. Paul Ryan, and also heard from former Reagan chief of staff James Baker. The roundtable featured two right-leaning pundits–Rich Lowry and Jeffrey Goldberg–alongside two centrist reporters, Peter Baker of the New York Times and CBS correspondent Margaret Brennan.
If you were looking at partisanship, you might say that the only guest on the Democratic side was retired General Jim Jones, since he served as Barack Obama’s national security adviser. But his current job is more revealing–and it’s one that CBS didn’t tell its viewers.
He was on to talk about Ukraine, and here’s the relevant exchange:
CHARLIE ROSE: Put in the energy equation, because of what impact that could have.
JONES: Well, you know…interestingly enough, yesterday four countries sent letters to Speaker Boehner and, I think, the majority leader in the Senate–that’s Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia–asking the United States to accelerate its shipments of energy, to Eastern Europe in particular. This just underscores the fact that in a long-term– and maybe even midterm–scenario, our energy potential has the capacity of lowering the dependence of Europe on Russian energy, and therefore affecting the economic viability of Russia for a long term.
Using energy as a political tool isn’t exactly novel. But what’s worth knowing is that Jones isn’t just a retired general. As Buzzfeed‘s Evan McMorris-Santoro (3/10/14) reported, Jones is now “a top lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute and the US Chamber of Commerce with a focus on Keystone.”
In other words, he’s paid by the oil and gas lobby to carry their message–and among the industry’s top priorities are building the Keystone XL pipeline and expanding US oil and gas exploration. CBS viewers should have been told that–especially when guest host Charlie Rose is teeing up questions about the “energy equation.”
Donald Pruden, Jr., a/k/a The Enemy Combatant
Is it any wonder that the late cartoonist George “Lichty” Lichtenstein, who created the panel strip “Grin And Bear It”, long ago parodized the CBS program with the name “Faze The Nation”?
michael e
Hey I agree that too much in Washington policy is matched to the all mighty dollar,but…..In this case it does raise a question that is buried under green arguments.What effect has not reaping the reward of our natural resources had on the geo political balance of energy distribution?And what will happen in the future,
gloriana casey
The future is here now, michael e.
The EPA was sued by BP and the US Chamber of Commerfce. BP won. So———in spite of killing 11 American workers and fouling the beaches and waters of 5 states, and trying to weasle out of paying what they agreed to pay to American citizens and their bisinesses, and this, along with knowing that people and the GULF are still suffering long term negative health effects——–in spite of all of that BP, sued the EPA and won and has now received access to something like 40 new oil sites to have a whack at.
So BP, of the UK won, and apparently it seems that the US Chamber of Commerce is of the UK too. ; )
I guess the UK never did get over that George the 3rd thing.Sadly, it does appear that an OILY- garchy truly rules the world. Perhaps we need a health affects study on what happens when CO2 and methane mix with the human brain.
Oh, By George , I”ve got it. MADDiX MALORUM EST CUPIDITAS..although I could have spelled that wrong-so look it up…….but that’s what the future is. : 0
michael e
Gloriana 87%-95 of lands are off limits to exploration.Instead of the so called party of science believing in,and working towards, giving us the ability toward cheap energy 100% our own for the next 500 years- they opt out.They seem to believe this is beyond our technology.Leaving us and the world in perilous geo political conditions that could some day result in war.Remember when Palin said drill baby drill, and the left mocked her saying we cant drill our way out of this problem?Well in effect we did.And damn quickly.And now Obama dripping with hypocrisy takes full credit for the private industry discoveries that has kept our prices down by 50% and rebounded several states out of the Obama recession ,as well as stabilizing our economy. This “scared of science”attitude is simply not an option anymore Gloriana.We can have all the energy we want.AND do it clean.
Joe O
Would be nice to have some suggestive “pre-formatted” e mail letters of protest we could sign that either we or FAIR could then forward to CBS execs. Lot’s of other groups have that. Is there some reason that FAIR don’t ? Just wondering.
Ctemple
Why should we be in such an all fired hurry to spread pollution to the rest of the planet? Why should we want to destroy our country so Europe can live free of fracking and the type of oil the Keystone pipeline will send across our landscape?
potshot
General Jones reasoning is right up there with the general(s) who came up with the solution of raising military spending by $50 billion after 9/11: ecologically pillage the United States for militarist geopolitical ends.
gloriana casey
LOL michael e.
Fracking pollutes and ruins water, and since so much of LIFE, including the human body, is water, it seems that we should be worrying about keeping the planet and its life forms in one piece…you know, basic survival.
The Gulf has not recovered. the Gulf Citizens of this nation still have ruined lives to deal with, and health problems and much of the sea life in a lot of places is starting to die off. The ocean is getting more and more acidic, so unless you can learn to love eating just jellyfish, diets will be changing too.
WHY do we need more gas,oil and coal? Undoubtedly because a lot of people with money are totally invested in getting more of it.( I wrote that Latin phrase wrong in my other post.It’s supposed to be Radix Malorum est cupiditas…”Root of evil is greed….”
WATER is leaving the planet, and as interesting as Mars looks, no one can live there. Natural resources are being ruined, disappeared or contaminated and the koch- head bros will not have to live on that planet, Earth. unless they are able to turn into andorids. Although, every time i look at Cheney, that’s what he seems to be. : )
Besides, if the US and all those other nations didn’t have so many wars, we wouldn’t need all that oil, would we? : )