Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Anyone Want to Hear the Other Side? No? Good.

As you know, the Nature Center of the City of St. Louis Park has used taxpayer funds to promote and present former VP Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth.

After protests from Chad and others, the city council made assurances that an opposing viewpoint would be offered. What does that mean? Well, having a person stand up and give rebuttal on the day of the film "because it would make it too long and it wasn't advertised in the brochure." Instead, they will ask the attendees if they would also like to see The Great Global Warming Swindle. If they get a positive response, they will schedule the second film for another time in April.

This is an interesting strategy. Schedule and promote a one-sided presentation, and then ask those who choose to attend the same whether they want some balance. Is this a fair cross section of the residents of St. Louis Park?

I don't support making the attendees into a captive audience, but this seems like a setup to demonstrate that no one was interested in an opposing view. Concerned citizens need to demand equal treatment -- promotion, brochures, etc. -- for the "rebuttal" film, whatever and whenever that happens to be.

1 comment:

Marty said...

You should get some volunteers together and pass out brochures or fliers with a simple web address (like this one) to help people go out and see the great global warming swindle. You should also get someone with a laptop to come to the event and ask people if they'd like to see the Swindle movie right then and there (or at a local restaraunt or library). Even get a projector if you got one and ask to use whatever equipment Al Gore gets.

Bring cameras and tape the events as they transpire.