Does anyone care about truth?

January 25, 2010 11:30 PM

As I read the morning news, I often get the feeling that I am living in a parallel universe. News stories often report highly questionable information with no caveat, editors or writers offering not the slightest suggestion that the report may be inaccurate.

So we still get stories that discuss global warming issues as though it were undisputed fact, even after Al Gore's hocky stick theory has been complete decimated, even though NASA itself is attibuting climate change to violent activity of the surface of the sun.
Shouldn't there have been at least a mention or perhaps an explanation or perhaps even a disputation of those e-mails that suggested climate scientists were obfuscating the data on global warming? Why won't Al Gore debate those who have found errors in his "Inconvenient Truth"? Judges in Great Britain forbade the schools there to show the film unless teachers point out to their students the nine pieces of disinformation the film is promulgating.

If the scientists are confident they are right, why not openly debate the disputed issues identified by the producers of the documentary "A Convenient Lie"? I want to believe that scientists really are interested in truth.

I want to believe that members of the media are awake and alert, willing to sort fact from fiction, but they seem to be marching forward in a daze, totally ignoring the controversy, refusing to recognize the naysayers, pretending the controversy doesn't exist.

I am also dazed by the lack of complete reportage about the problems with another issue, the wonderful green energy jobs the federal government is funding. The federal government for example is going to create, huge tax cuts for people who install solar panels. I heard one report on the radio and was stunned by the lack of serious questioning of the implications.

Apparently people can install $500,000 solar systems on their houses for an investment of a mere $50,000. Federal rebates, state rebates, APS rebates, and tax cuts take care of the rest. Shouldn't the public be reminded that the rest of us who probably can't afford to make that $50,000 investment will be expected to pay almost a half a million dollars in fees and taxes and higher energy costs for every unit installed?

More important is the lack of logic with regard to government investments in projects of this sort. Say, for example, that the federal government is willing to pay for 25 percent of the cost of installation of those solar panels. Won't companies take advantage of the largesse and hike their prices accordingly?