About a half hour ago, I heard a report from ABC News on my car radio about the decision by president Obama to kill the Keystone XL Pipeline and the enormous numbers of jobs it would produce. Clearly, ABC was trying to make the decision by Obama look good, but they had a great deal of trouble trying to do so on short notice. The result was actually hilarious. First, the ABC reporter (who I think was Ann Compton) "explained" who was on each side of the dispute. Those favoring the pipeline were described as "big oil companies" with "some union support". Those opposing the pipeline were not called environmentalists; no, they were "opponents". That's it, just "opponents". Indeed, ABC did not even try to say why the "opponents" opposed the pipeline.
So there you have it. Obama rejected this pipeline pushed by big oil. ABC did mention that big oil said that the pipeline would create jobs (but who can believe them). The truth is that everyone who has looked at the project agrees that it would create tens of thousands of jobs; some say it would result in about 150,000 permanent jobs. These are not figures coming from big oil; these are the results of studies from all sorts of entities, nearly all of which have nothing to do with oil companies. ABC could not bring itself to say this. The truth is also that the opposition to the pipeline comes from extremist environmentalists who oppose the project since it deal with fossil fuel. As I explained earlier today, the rejection of the pipeline by Obama will result in a different pipeline being built so that the same oil can be exported by Canada to China and refined by the Chinese refineries. The net result will be substantially more pollution worldwide than if the Keystone XL Pipeline were built. ABC well knows that, so it could not bring itself to mention environmental concerns in its report. There were only "opponents."
Maybe the proverb should be rewritten with ABC in mind: "Fiction is stranger than truth!"
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