The Beltway news operation National Journal attacked Virginia Attorney General and gubernatorial hopeful Ken Cuccinelli for his stance on political issues, particularly global warming. In a March 2 article entitled “Can Climate-Change Denier Ken Cuccinelli Win a Swing State?” National Journal asked how “[i]n storm-battered Virginia, the Republican candidate for governor still doubts the science.” The story was illustrated with a flood picture to underscore the point.
Throughout the story, Cuccinelli was depicted in negative terms: “partisan firebrand,” “extremist” and “hard-right.”
“The leading Republican candidate, state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, is an unapologetic partisan firebrand who has drawn the national spotlight for his crusade against the science of climate change,” the article argued. It claimed “Cuccinelli’s hard-right views are causing quiet heartburn in his party, prompting speculation that another, more moderate Republican – Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling – could run.” There was no mention in the article of whether or not Cuccinelli’s office was contacted for comment.
National Journal also quoted Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe early on in the piece, citing that McAuliffe is “planning to attack Cuccinelli for his hard-right views on climate change as part of a broader effort to paint the Republican as an extremist on hot-button issues, including abortion, gay rights, and immigration.”
The news outlet called Virginia a “concentrated microcosm of the environmental and economic agendas facing policymakers,” claiming the Virginia’s Eastern Shore is “among the reasons most vulnerable to sever physical and economic disruption from climate change.” It then cited a study claiming “rising sea levels could wreak up to $25 billion of economic havoc over time,” and argued that “[s]everal scientific studies have named Norfolk as one of the three U.S. cities most at risk of damage from extreme storms and flooding exacerbated by climate change,” but never once named any of the studies involved.
National Journal claims to be “the most credible, objective, and authoritative voice in the Beltway,” but apparently it doesn’t care too much about keeping that title.
The reality of “climate change” is that more than 1,000 scientists are on record dissenting from the so-called "consensus" on global warming. U.S. government atmospheric scientist Stanley B. Goldenberg of the Hurricane Research Division of National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has said, "It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don't buy into anthropogenic [manmade] global warming."
