Cross-Border Shillin' Machine

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(advance warning - this one is link-heavy for future reference; apologies)

Pulling things together from a variety of sources, one of our new favorites (see sidebar), the prolific Big City Lib, has a succinct post up on the shilling that our very own Fraser Institute has been doing for American Oil Lobby on the greenhouse gas emission issue:

Desmogblog links to a new Union of Concerned Scientists report on how ExxonMobile replays the tobacco lobby's tactics to create uncertainty on climate science. Haven't had a chance to read the whole report yet, but have come across one fascinating tid-bit already. The list of "Groups and Individuals Associated with ExxonMobil's Disinformation Campaign" has some Canadian content in the form of the Fraser Institute. Between 1998 and 2005 Exxon donated $120,000 to the institute for "climate change work", including "research" by the infamous Tim "I'm not funded by the Oil Lobby" Ball.


So, imagine our surprise when the first serious Democratic candidate for US President in 2008, John Edwards, started suggesting that it just might be time for universal healthcare in the States and the Wingnutterers' Whirlitzer immediately began cranking out stories about how bad the situation in Canada is based on, you guessed it, the work of that fine, unbiased and totally independent public policy group, The Fraser Institute.


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Now, of course, the job of Whirlitzer is not to float stories based on truth, reason and/or perspective. Instead, it's real job is to get all of the ink-stained wretches and the bleached-brained bloviators to accept their position as a given in the shamelessly lazy 'he said - she said' duality that governs today's dumbed-down mainstream media packworld (see: Dion, Stephane -French Guy, for example).
In case you have doubts about my Whirlitzer analysis check out the bonafides of the folks behind the wingnuttery cited above. First the board behind the American 'National Center For Policy Alternatives'; second the homepage of the author of the spin piece, Michael Bates; and lastly, but certainly not least the folks (mostly American and mostly reactionary) who write for the interestingly titled 'Canadian Free Press'.
If you would like to read an actual well-reasoned analysis of the dangers of the long and winding road called 'Private Healthcare Insurance' that our premier Mr. Gordon Campbell is currently attempting to force us down using our own money, please have a gander at yesterday's NYT column by Paul Krugman.
Finally, here is a nice jumping off point for anyone interested in attempting to navigate the Fraser Institute's murky myriad of money trails.

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