What in the name of Al Gore is NBC thinking? Forrest Gump used to say “stupid is as stupid does.” Does Forrest Gump now work at NBC?
Last Sunday night during the their televised Dallas – Philadelphia football game, NBC turned off the lights in the studio to kick off their “NBC Universal’s “Green is Universal” week. To punctuate their green imitative, NBC flew reporters to the North Pole, the South Pole, and points in between to televise ‘global warming’ in action for the halftime show.
Turning off the studio lights must have saved about a teaspoon full of carbon emissions. Meanwhile, Newsbusters.org estimates NBC spewed about 25 tons of CO2 on their photo-op stunts in the Artic Circle, Antarctica, and Ecuador. Hell of a trade-off, guys.
I suppose it would be impolitic of me to also mention that as NBC turns off the lights in the studio to save energy, they are spending millions of dollars in advertising promotion to have everyone in America turn on their TVs and tune in to NBC…with the lights off, I would expect.
Investors Business Daily has an interesting take on this NBC stunt.
“Al Gore seems to have found a home at the peacock network. Both he and the network’s symbol like to strut a lot and frequently have their feathers ruffled.”
“This week the peacock’s feathers are a solid green as NBC, among other activities, sends its “Today” show stars, as the promo puts it, to “the ends of the earth” to promote Gore’s agenda of saving the planet and repealing the Industrial Revolution.”
“NBC began its Green Week with Sunday night’s Dallas Cowboys-Philadelphia Eagles football game. Bob Costas solemnly intoned: “As part of NBC Universal’s ‘Green is Universal’ initiative, we have turned out the lights in the studio to kick off a week that will include more than 150 hours of programming designed to raise awareness about environmental issues.”
“Actually, the studio lights were off for about a minute, during which time you could see the giant stadium screen over his right shoulder and glowing video monitors all over the set. At halftime, Costas tossed it to Matt Lauer standing before some sled dogs in the Arctic, bathed in bright lighting flown in for the occasion.”
“The folks at Newsbusters.org have calculated that flying Lauer and two crew to the Arctic Circle in Greenland – from New York to Thule AFB, a 2,487-mile distance – produced six tons of carbon emissions . That’s one ton each way per person. They used the carbon calculator found on Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” Web site.”
“Roker’s journey from New York to Quito, Ecuador, again assuming a crew of just two, produced another six tons of carbon emissions. Ann Curry’s trip to Antarctica – 11,686 miles in all – produced a total of 12.9 tons of carbon.”
“That’s a grand total of 24.9 tons of CO2 produced for a momentary photo-op while most people were up getting a beer or making a pit stop. According to Gore’s Web site, the average person produces 7.5 tons of CO2 in a year.”
“Green Week isn’t NBC’s first effort at environmental activism. In July, it provided 75 hours of free air time to Gore not only on NBC but also CNBC, Bravo, the Sundance Channel, Universal HD and Telemundo for his Live Earth concerts.”
“This involved flying rock stars around the planet in emission-spewing private jets to plug their electric guitars into Godzilla-size amplifiers.”
David Online 