On Tuesday's MSNBC Live, host Ali Velshi delivered the latest gem of an example of a self-anointed fact-checker trying to prove a conservative to be wrong about something only to get it substantially more wrong in his alleged correction.
Responding to former Greenpeace president-turned-right-leaning analyst Patrick Moore attacking the Green New Deal plan, Velshi misleadingly gave the impression that carbon dioxide is not a critical component for biological life on Earth.
After playing a clip of Moore appearing as a guest on the same day's Fox and Friends calling carbon dioxide "the main building block" of life as he noted that carbon dioxide is a critical source for carbon found in living creatures on Earth. Velshi took exception as he used his show's regular "For Fact's Sake" segment to condescendingly correct him:
Moore said that carbon dioxide is the main building block of all life, but he's confusing carbon with carbon dioxide. Carbon is the basic building block of life on Earth. Carbon dioxide is a gas released into the atmosphere by burning coal, oil, and other fossil fuels. Anybody who has read a pamphlet on it would know that, so a guy who spent his life dealing with climate and the environment should definitely know that.
Velshi did not inform viewers that Moore was fundamentally correct in that plants depend on absorbing carbion dioxide in the air to convert it into other compounds which then pass to animals when animals eat plants, so carbon dioxide is, in fact, a critical source for carbon.
And, without noting that Greenpeace has a history of crediting Moore as helping found the organization, Velshi also suggested that Moore and Fox and Friends were spreading misinformation as he related for viewers:
The comments were made by a former Greenpeace Canada president -- Patrick Moore. That's the guy you just saw. Fox identified him as a cofounder of the environmentalist association. Greenpeace tweeted that that is not the case and that he does not represent the group. The organization also said that he is a paid lobbyist for the mining and nuclear energy industries.
Fox and Friends was actually upfront about Moore's break with Greenpeace, and co-host Brian Kilmeade even read part of Greenpeace's tweet which denied that he speaks for them, so there was no attempt by Fox News Channel to pretend that Moore has recently been aligned with liberal environmentalists as one might have thought from listening to Velshi's misleading fact check.
