Risky Business

Responding to ‘Risky Business’ Report, CNBC Seeks Op-Ed on ‘Global Warming Being a Hoax’

By Lee Fang

How badly does cable news network CNBC want to deny the existence of global warming?

For a network with an embarrassing history of fudging the science around climate change, one CNBC booker apears to have made a big mistake.

Responding to the groundbreaking report “Risky Business,” a bipartisan project that compiled the many ways global warming will harm the United States economy over the next cenutry, a CNBC staffer sent an e-mail to a website that she apparently thought was connected to economist and climate contrarian Alan Carlin. In the e-mail, which has been shared with Republic Report, the booker asked Carlin to respond to the report and write an op-ed on “global warming being a hoax.” See below:

Hi there. Given this new report on the cost of climate change, wanted to extend an invitation to Alan Carlin to write an op-ed for CNBC.com. Can be on the new report or just his general thoughts on global warming being a hoax. If he’s interested, please email me directly

The e-mail was sent to DeSmogBlog, the hard-hitting climate investigative blog, which has a profile on Carlin. To be clear, DeSmogBlog has no relation to Carlin other than reporting on his many misdeeds and his appearance on the Glenn Beck program.

When a tragedy hits, for example a fire or an industrial accident that kills many innocent people, reporters do not generally solicit op-eds for folks to spin the incident as a “hoax.” Why, then, do reporters obsessively seek to promote climate deniers, despite the overwhelming scientific evidence and the mounting evidence that the phenomenon will cause havoc on human civilization? Perhaps because fossil fuel interests are among the largest buyers of cable news advertising. In any case, we reached out to the CNBC booker who wrote the e-mail. She would not comment on the solicitation.