‘Nightly News’ Continues Down Warpath Against Bottled Water

October 18th, 2007 6:17 PM

Same story, different day – the networks do another bottled water/environmental story.

Who would have thought corporate “big water” would ever have the bulls-eye painted on it by the rabid environmentalists in the television media?

“Across the country cities are urging thirsty Americans to think outside the bottle,” said NBC’s Chief Environmental Affairs Correspondent Anne Thompson on the October 17 “Nightly News.” “From Austin to Boston, it's bottle versus tap in taste tests. They are talking about the ecological impact of bottled water in Portland.”

Thompson told viewers the bottles fill up landfills “because fewer than one-quarter are recycled.” However, rather than encouraging a recycling campaign for used water bottles, Thompson’s report focused on tap water consumption versus bottled water consumption.

But Thompson didn’t tell viewers that according to the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), 100 percent of bottled water containers are recyclable and water cooler jugs for home or office coolers are sanitized and can be reused an average of 50 times.

“That’s where the effort should be focused, not on any one particular industry, particular – particularly one that makes up just one-third of 1 percent of the entire waste stream,” Joe Doss, president of the IBWA told “Nightly News.”

“Nightly News” even trotted out anti-bottled water jihadist and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Newsom banned city departments from purchasing bottled water and referenced his previous 3-5 bottles a day of bottled water “addiction” during an interview with Thompson. Thompson credited Newsom for “replacing the once-ubiquitous bottles with [water] filter machines.”

Thompson, however, didn’t identify Newsom is a staunch Democrat.