NBC: Combat Russian Imperialism and Global Warming

If you went to see a double feature of "An Inconvenient Truth" and "Red Dawn" you might come close to one of NBC's "Nightly News" stories last night.

An August 12 broadcast of the NBC show found a unique way to promote the war on global warming: Russian imperialism. Then they promoted a treaty that President Ronald Reagan refused to sign in 1982 on the grounds that it would tie America's hands too tightly to United Nations regulations.

Russia recently made claim to an underwater tract of the Arctic and likened it to the planting of the U.S. flag on the moon in 1969.

"Why the polar rush? Global warming," said correspondent Kerry Sanders. "Call it the new Cold War."

"A UN report says the Artic sea ice may disappear by the year 2050...But all this political maneuvering may not matter in the end," Sanders said. "Right now a United Nations treaty has the final word on who owns the Arctic Seas riches.""

The Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) was rejected by the Reagan administration in 1982 on the grounds it gave too much power to the 21-nation "U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf."

The Washington Post quoted Reagan in July 1982 saying, "‘We're policed and patrolled on land, and there is so much regulation that I kind of thought that when you go out on the high seas you can do what you want.'"

Russia's underwater claim drew attention when it was discovered state broadcasters used scenes from the 1997 movie Titanic to "beef-up" footage. Reuters used the footage in that coverage and has subsequently printed a clarification

- BMI Staff Writer Jeffery Poor contributed to this blog post.