CNN's Bill Weir has long ago dumped any pretense of unbiased reporting when it comes to climate coverage. His antics on Monday's The Lead only added to the perception of him as a climate change activist with a press card. He demonstrated this during an interview with Al Gore who, as you can see, knew he was in very friendly territory.
Host Jake Tapper set the snarky tone with the totally expected sneer of President Donald Trump when he introduced the segment:
In our Earth Matters Series today, a surprise if brief appearance today from President Trump, who for 14 whole minutes popped in on a climate summit at the United Nations after initially planning to skip it. But climate activists including former vice presidents are calling him out. Let's go to CNN's. Bill, Weir at the U.N. Bill?
Weir quickly made it clear to Al Gore, if he didn't already know it, that he was a fellow global warming alarmist while taking the requisite shots at Trump (click "expand"):
BILL WEIR: Jake, fittingly, unceasingly warm day here on the east side of Manhattan as world leaders converge to talk about a climate in crisis. The President, as you mentioned, pulling a drive-by less than 15 minutes listening to the prime minister and chancellor of both India and Germany on his way to a meeting about faith protecting religious freedoms around the world. One world leader who knows this topic well, and is back in familiar territory, former Vice President Al Gore.
AL GORE: Thanks, Bill.
WEIR: Great to see you. Thank you for coming outside.
GORE: You too always. Thank you.
WEIR: What do you make of the lack of American leadership here today?
Of course, it would never occur to Weir to ask Gore if he flew into the climate summit on his private jet. Instead he continued with his totally expected fawning over Gore:
GORE: Well, I think that to focus on the good news side of it, Donald Trump being the face of global climate denial actually is motivating the kind of uprising and enthusiasm we saw last Friday with these millions of young people marching. I'm optimistic. We're behind at the beginning of the second half, but we've got the tools we need to address this crisis.
WEIR: It's been over a decade since he tried to sound the alarm at Climate Paul Revere with an inconvenient truth. And after, of course, a lot of fanfare, Nobel Prize for the IPCC scientists behind those initial alarming reports. Very little has been done. The world continues to burn carbon at an unsustainable relentlessly rates. But yet he continues to carry that message with unflappable optimism somehow.
The Gore gush thus came to a merciful end without, of course, Weir mentioning that the biggest emitter of carbon into the atmosphere is China.
To get an idea where Bill Weir is coming from, check out how he offered "Criticism-Free Praise for Green New Deal" back in February.
