You know it's summer when your favorite shows start reruns, but most people don't expect reruns of television news. Yet ABC news looked like one on July 9.
ABC "World News with Charles Gibson" followed up it's July 8 hit piece on bottled water, with a second hit piece the next evening.
"There are billions and billions and billions of these [water bottles] that end up in landfills every year," correspondent Ryan Owens said to an unidentified man.
Owens report beat up bottled water using the same points as the earlier report: that it is environmentally damaging because the bottles end up in landfills and plastic is created using fossil fuels. He quoted the mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah - one city that has banned the bottle.
“We just need to get away from these wasteful environmentally disastrous consumer habits that have been developed and get back to drinking water out of the tap,” said Salt Lake City’s mayor Rocky Anderson to ABC.
Owens also said Anderson calls bottled water "the greatest marketing scam in history."
But a spokesman from the bottled water industry just sees the industry as an easy target in the green craze because of its high visibility.
“People are scrambling and looking for ways to go green,” said Stephen R. Kay Vice President of Communications for the International Bottled Water Association to the Business & Media Institute.
“While all beverages have their role in a marketplace with an abundance of drink choices, consumers are choosing bottled water as a refreshing, hydrating beverage and as an alternative to others that may contain calories, caffeine, sugar, artificial colors, alcohol or other ingredients, which they wish to moderate or avoid,” Kay said in a press release in April.
—Julia A. Seymour is an assistant editor for the Business & Media Institute.
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Well, something has to wind u
July 10, 2007 - 19:01 ET by Mica the MagnificentWell, something has to wind up in landfills.
That's what they're for, no?
I'll bet correspondent Ryan Owens script wound up in a landfill.
And quickly, too.
I'm stationed a 1/2 hour nort
July 11, 2007 - 08:27 ET by ammo johnI'm stationed a 1/2 hour north of Rocky's city, and he is one of the biggest clowns I've ever seen. What sucks for me is that he's always on the news. As for the water bottles, at least he didn't ban soda pop yet! SLC definitely got what they deserved when they elected him. Or, was he selected?!
The alternative
July 11, 2007 - 13:08 ET by AshThe alternative to individually bottled water is going to be water coolers with styrofoam cups or waxy paper cups. The environmental nut-jobs will throw a fit if styrofoam becomes the successfull replacement. Plastic bottles can and should be recycled where as styrofoam is pretty much useless for anything but floatation.
"There are billions and
July 10, 2007 - 19:03 ET by saw the light"There are billions and billions and billions of these (water bottles) that end up in landfills every year,"
Documentation? Does Mr. Owens have any proof of this?
Billions and billions and billions would be at least 6 billion bottles. For each "billions" stated, would that not be at least two billion, since it is plural? And since there are three "billions," it stands to reason that there are at least 6 billion bottles.
How many bottles are manufactured for the bottled water industry each year? How many are recycled? How many are thrown out windows and end up on the landscape and not in landfills?
Let's hope the news media can find another crucial problem, such as the proliferation of wasted toilet paper from people that use more than one square.
"There is a tendency for the world to say to America, 'the big problems of the world are yours, you go and sort them out,' and then to worry when America wants to sort them out." - Prime Minister Tony Blair
I guess it's safe to say Ry
July 10, 2007 - 19:31 ET by mlongI guess it's safe to say Ryan Owens doesn't drink bottle water...right?
Yea I don't buy that for a minute I bet the trash can next to his desk is full of empty bottles....some for water to.
Does anyone else find it stra
July 10, 2007 - 19:53 ET by dscottDoes anyone else find it strange that these loons are saying nothing about bottled soda and beer? How can anyone make the assertions that billions of plastic bottles are ending up in the land fills when Recycling programs have been around for decades. Is this maybe the wheelbarrow and the saw dust story. You remember the story, about people thinking the saw dust was being stolen when in actuality it was wheel barrows. I suspect, this is being pushed to get people to go to the alternative: filtered water. Sounds like PUR and Brita have something to gain here by ABC pushing the story.
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius
I believe that would be bec
July 10, 2007 - 20:02 ET by JerryI believe that would be because plastic is a petroleum product (evil big oil). Glass and aluminum are politically correct pollutants.
When asked if he went to war with Iraq to derail the impeachment
vote: “I don’t think any serious person would believe that any
President would do such a thing." - President Clinton (Dec 1998).
dscott,I think you make a gre
July 10, 2007 - 20:15 ET by Dave Rdscott,
I think you make a great point here, for the very same reason many drug companies push "cholesterol lowering" drugs, despite the increasing level of independent research suggesting many of these drugs do far more harm than good.
It would be quite interesting to see the advertising revenue the major networks are collecting from the water filtration companies.
BTW-I'm not saying that bottled water is the end-it, be-all of pure water products, as I spent five years in the environmental engineering realm, and know full well the "dirty little secret" of certain bottled water products.
Help Fred defeat the RINOs, along with the Hitllary-Obama Axis, & win the White House in '08.
Constant Viagra, or Cialis, o
July 11, 2007 - 01:29 ET by sarcasmoConstant Viagra, or Cialis, or Levitra (and we still don't know which...) ads financed the media bias that never allowed any of us to know the VA Tech killer's drug, dosage, or doctor. Despite a "sarcasmo full court press" on NB at the time, the news media never budged on their bias. They maintained the deafening silence which big pharma has so-obviously purchased instead, and to this day we get to know all the brand names and calibers of the guns as well as where they were purchased (legally) but despite my correct prediction of this category of (legal...) antidepressant psychodrugs being involved, "journalists" haven't done their jobs, so we don't know which-drug or which-dose or which-doc. And media people wonder why I have so much love and respect for the "profession."
JMR
Julia,'World News' Hits the B
July 10, 2007 - 19:58 ET by Dave RJulia,
'World News' Hits the Bottle Again
Great title, there. I agree, as I think "hitting the bottle" is a requirement for employment at the All But Communist Network.
Help Fred defeat the RINOs, along with the Hitllary-Obama Axis, & win the White House in '08.
Would not surprise me in the
July 10, 2007 - 23:26 ET by mikejWould not surprise me in the least to hear them soon saying the safest way to drink water is out of the garden hose like all boys and girls used too back in the day.
Eggs and Bacon used to be bad, now good for you!
Wow, isn't amazing that Roc
July 11, 2007 - 00:59 ET by Conservative VoiceWow, isn't amazing that Rocky Anderson gets praise for outlawing a legal product that is healthy? So what if tap water is just as good, how communist can you get? Whats next Rocky?
Next thing ya know they'll be
July 11, 2007 - 03:57 ET by Full MonteNext thing ya know they'll be going after toilette paper . . . er, oh yeah.
Speaking of news programs sum
July 11, 2007 - 04:28 ET by SouthJersey1953Speaking of news programs summer reruns..... On Monday, GMA did the story about what to do if pulled over by a cop if you think it might not be a real cop. They reported it like they had new info, but the two "new" things they pointed out, turn on your flashers to acknowledge you see him back there and call 911 to verify there is an unmarked car in the area, were reported months (or years) ago. Diane Sawface ended the report with "Well, I learned two new things today." Huh? I pretty sure it was her that did a very similar story last spring........
No RINOs in '08 - Thompson/Hunter would be a good ticket; Thompson/Steele would be a great ticket
A Better Alternative
July 11, 2007 - 09:41 ET by takingmyconstitutionalBottled water is ridiculous. Home water filters are readily available, and water thus filtered can be placed in a thermos for use "on the road."
Bottled water is ridiculous.
July 11, 2007 - 10:36 ET by shannon20Bottled water is ridiculous. Home water filters are readily available, and water thus filtered can be placed in a thermos for use "on the road."
How elitist of you.... poor people are more worried about paying their water bill, not worried about buying a water purifier. Do any of these leaders even know the folks they are supposedly representing? I say hell no!!!!!!!!
Of course these clueless deci
July 11, 2007 - 13:40 ET by dscottOf course these clueless decision makers (elites) fail again to consider the consequences of their decisions. So the next time when a hurricane comes or other natural disaster, how pray tell do they expect to dispense water to the people affected? How do they expect people to personally prepare for a hurricane and not have bottled water in plastic containers??? Fill your bathtubes folks and get out your straws.
Plastic is bad, bad, bad. Yeah, let's all buy glass containers and then complain about the broken glass all over the place.
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius