Sunday saw another step for mankind into space as billionaire Richard Branson and his company Virgin Galactic made their maiden space tourism voyage successfully. But CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter was channeling Ebenezer Scrooge during Sunday’s Reliable Sources as he bah humbugged the event and decried it as immoral because of climate change and the evils of capitalism.
After putting down Virgin Galactic for creating nothing more than an “expensive commercial,” the possibly jealous Stelter parroted a Politico editor to deride Branson and make it about economic inequality and climate change: “Have to wonder, in the future, billionaires taking vanity tours of space while the climate overheats will be one of those moments the historians write about.”
Eventually, Stelter questioned the morality of the historic space flight and allowing private companies to go into space because of climate change:
On Friday, in Death Valley, California, it was 130 degrees, the highest temperature ever. Saturday, same thing. Today, it might, again, set a record for the highest temperature on the planet. Is it moral, is it ethical to be launching rockets and flying off to space and spending all this money and burning all this fuel in an age of climate crisis?
He was speaking with CNN aerospace analyst Miles O’Brien who shot down his smears. “Well, I don't think it's mutually exclusive, Brian. I think we can afford to continue to push our frontier, but we still have to fix our own spaceship here first and concurrently,” he said, while also noting that humanity needed to progress into becoming a spacefaring civilization to survive extremely long term.
Earlier in the show, O’Brien put Stelter in his place by arguing that it was better to have the billionaires throw money at private space flight for the masses because “NASA was never going to do this for us”:
So, it's billionaires now. Who else was going to do it? NASA was never going to do this for us, so let's let the billionaires spend their money, have a little fun, and as time goes on and we do this more, we hope the price will go down. We went from the Ford Trimotor in the 20s to the Airbus A-380s and we all fly all over the world. Let's hope that that's the course we're headed on and you and I, Brian, will get a chance to fly.
The petty sniping at Branson and the other billionaires funding private space flight (Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk) was a running theme of the show. Stelter reduced the completion for safe and affordable space flight to just a personal completion between the “mega-rich.” “So, Teddy [Schleifer], is that the billionaire beat in a nutshell, these guys who can afford to do anything just trying to leapfrog each other?”
Schleifer was a so-called “billionaire beat” reporter who told Stelter that the media need to keep a close eye these people because capitalism is evil:
We’ve to put it in the broader context here which is the same forces that create the winners of capitalism also create a lot of inequality. And how do billionaires take their winnings from capitalism and try to combat inequality, try to do amazing things for humanity. That's the tension that I think newsrooms need to dive into even more.
“These are people with enormous influence in society. It's a beat about power, about inequality, about democracy,” he warned.
The other reporter to put Stelter in his place was former Fox News reporter turned CNN space correspondent Kristin Fisher who credited the billionaires with bringing back American space flight.
Adding: “And I know some people are just tired of hearing about these billionaires, these rich people, they love these rockets, they love going into space. They’re tired of the billionaires in space. But I can't stress this enough, this is ultimately about opening up space to everyone.”
There were no ad breaks. So, Brian Stelter’s pettiness and bitterness towards Virgin Galactic were made possible because of his personal feelings of inadequacy.
The transcripts are below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Reliable Sources
July 11, 2021
11:05:50 a.m. Eastern(…)
BRIAN STELTER: And at the spaceport -- at the location, I was talking to a couple people who were there this morning. They talk about hundreds of people being there, friends, family, students. Right? There are these scholarship recipients who are there to cheer Branson on. So, as much as this is a commercial, and Virgin Galactic is putting on an expensive commercial today, it’s also an inspirational moment. Right? For a generation that didn't get to grow up watching NASA launches. They're instead growing up watching SpaceX and Virgin Galactic launches.
(…)
11:07:33 a.m. Eastern
STELTER: Let’s talk about the billionaire space race in some more detail, because as Kristin mentioned, long-time Amazon boss Jeff Bezos is set to make his own flight in just 9 days. Branson kind of moved his up early to get ahead of Bezos.
As an editor of Politico put it recently, “Have to wonder, in the future, billionaires taking vanity tours of space while the climate overheats will be one of those moments the historians write about.”
There is quite a contrast in the news these days. The need to cover power and influence in this era of extreme wealth inequality is only growing. [Name] calls this the billionaire’s beat. And it’s very visible right now with Branson halfway to the edge of space and Bezos getting ready to go.
So, let’s talk more about that with some guests we have standing by as we await the rocket launch. Teddy Schleifer is no the billionaires beat. He used to work here at CNN, then Recode, now he’s launching his own media venture company covering the mega-rich. It’s called The Stratosphere.
(…)
11:11:12 a.m. Eastern
STELTER: And on the Bezos front, we’re going to see that on July 20th, so tune back in for that one later this month. Bezos stepped down from Amazon. Remember, he was CEO, now he's chairman, so he's giving up the CEO job. Then he announces he’s going to space, and then Branson comes along with this earlier date. So, Teddy, is that the billionaire beat in a nutshell, these guys who can afford to do anything just trying to leapfrog each other?
TEDDY SCHLEIFER: I think today is a great example, Brian, of the fact that like the billionaire beat, as it's called, isn't like a luxury beat about the rich and famous doing crazy stuff, right? These are people with enormous influence in society. It's a beat about power, about inequality, about democracy.
Like, we're sitting here today seeing billionaires blast off into space and being at the forefront of kind of the American space industry. Right? These are private citizens who have enormous power, enormous wealth and are able to use it in really fascinating ways.
Now, like, I do think that it is impossible to talk about, you know, the billionaire's success without talking about the system that it creates this in the first place.
Like, obviously, you know, two or three weeks ago, Washington and New York and Silicon Valley was consumed with ProPublica reporting, the idea that people like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk were paying basically nothing sometimes in income tax.
And I want to connect the idea that the same facts that make today possible, the same facts that make extraordinary wealth lead to extraordinary, you know, space flight. That's a symptom, kind of, of the ProPublica story we were all talking about two or three weeks ago.
So, to me, I think the billionaire beat is something every newsroom should be covering more and more. And well, today is obviously, you know, just as a human being, like, an amazing thing to watch happen. We’ve to put it in the broader context here which is the same forces that create the winners of capitalism also create a lot of inequality. And how do billionaires take their winnings from capitalism and try to combat inequality, try to do amazing things for humanity. That's the tension that I think newsrooms need to dive into even more.
(…)
11:31:58 a.m. Eastern
MILES O’BRIEN (CNN aerospace analyst): We know this is a pivotal moment when people suddenly have the sense that they can be a part of space. I remember being in the hangar in Mohave, California after the XPrize was won by that team, and being with the pilot and the spacecraft just a short time after they flew.
And it felt very accessible to me and I think that’s an important thing to take away here, is that this makes space incrementally a little more accessible.
So, it's billionaires now. Who else was going to do it? NASA was never going to do this for us, so let's let the billionaires spend their money, have a little fun, and as time goes on and we do this more, we hope the price will go down. We went from the Ford Trimotor in the 20s to the Airbus A-380s and we all fly all over the world. Let's hope that that's the course we're headed on and you and I, Brian, will get a chance to fly.
(…)
11:45:01 a.m. Eastern
STELTER: This is the first moment that a guy who has bought his own spaceship has then flown his own spaceship, right? I mean, that’s what makes this a mile marker; is he wanted to do this, he had the funds, he raised money from others, now he's gone to space on his own spaceship. So, that's the mile marker today, right?
(…)
KIRSTIN FISHER: And so, the fact that you had this just scarcity of space flights, human space flights, over the last decade to now have these two billionaires doing it within less than two weeks of one other is just so remarkable. And I know some people are just tired of hearing about these billionaires, these rich people, they love these rockets, they love going into space. They’re tired of the billionaires in space. But I can't stress this enough, this is ultimately about opening up space to everyone.
(…)
11:52:32 a.m. Eastern
STELTER: On Friday, in Death Valley, California, it was 130 degrees, the highest temperature ever. Saturday, same thing. Today, it might, again, set a record for the highest temperature on the planet. Is it moral, is it ethical to be launching rockets and flying off to space and spending all this money and burning all this fuel in an age of climate crisis?
O’BRIEN: Well, I don't think it's mutually exclusive, Brian. I think we can afford to continue to push our frontier, but we still have to fix our own spaceship here first and concurrently. It's important to think about space potentially down the road here as a place for natural resources for us.
You can generate solar power in space and beam it back to the Earth. There are big asteroids floating out there which huge amounts of natural resources on them which could be mined. And ultimately, let's face it, the human race, eventually Earth and the solar system is going to end. The idea of extending humanity beyond our solar system someday sounds like science fiction. But if we don't continue these incremental steps now, we're never going to get there.
Maybe someday, we will be the UAPs or the UFOs for some other planet, some distant planet beyond. I know that sounds fanciful and crazy but we need to keep --
STELTER: [Laughs] You just blew my mind, Miles! I love that. You're saying we're going to be the UFOs someday.
(…)
