ABC’s Bill Weir Feels
Guilty about Driving SUV
‘Good Morning America’ plugs TBS special but doesn’t air any critics.
By Ken Shepherd
Free Market Project
Nov. 18, 2005
   Â
“I have an SUV, and I feel guilty about it,” ABC reporter Bill Weir
confessed to liberal activist Laurie David. Absolving him of his
venial environmental sin, David counseled Weir on his penance, “Next
time you're ready for a new car, think about a change.”
    But before hitting the Toyota dealership for a Prius,
Weir did David a service when he plugged “Earth to America,” a TBS
special she helped produce which airs Sunday, November 20 from 8 to
10 p.m.
    Not only did Weir promote a two-hour program in direct
competition with his network’s hit shows “Extreme Makeover: Home
Edition” and “Desperate Housewives,” he failed to challenge any of
the celebrities with whom he chatted about their views on global
warming.
    Weir stated as a given that “virtually all of science
agrees our planet is changing,” but the arguments on global warming,
said Weir, are over the reasons why. He didn’t explain that many
scientists dispute parts of David’s climate change mantra. Nor did
he bother to question the idea that global warming is – as the
“Earth to America” special claims – a manmade problem.
    Instead, the ABC correspondent matter-of-factly
introduced his segment saying the stars of the TBS special, have
“the toughest ticket in town,” in their quest to “save the planet.”
    Although Weir argued that “most of the performances try
to stay nonpartisan in an attempt to motivate both red and blue
America,” the celebrities he featured in his report exhibited
classic Hollywood liberal guilt. For example, former “Seinfeld” star
Jason Alexander proudly noted that he clothed his infants in cloth,
not disposable diapers while comedian Bill Maher equated driving
SUVs with funding terrorism.
    “Earth to America” will be the second media coup in as
many weeks for David, the wife of “Seinfeld” co-creator Larry David,
whom Weir labeled the “mastermind” behind the special.
    Last week Mrs. David was a featured special guest
alongside environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in “The Heat Is
On,” a
Fox News special which temporarily shelved the network’s “fair
and balanced” rubric to showcase only liberal environmental
activists.
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