Time Editor Bleats the Koch Brothers Will Ruin His Life (and Earth) by Buying Time

Newsbusters.org ^ | November 25, 2017 | Tim Graham

[Kaslin]

The Koch brothers might be part of buying Time magazine, and a former Time science editor is so panicked he wrote an article for the leftist magazine The Nation titled "Don't Let the Koch Brothers Buy Time Magazine." Charles Alexander wrote about how his life’s work of screaming environmental bias may be about to go down the drain:

Can you imagine what it would be like to see your life’s work suddenly go down the drain? I can—right now. As a former Time editor who spent 13 years editing the magazine’s coverage of environmental issues, I am in despair over reports that Time Inc. will soon sell itself to Meredith Corp. in a deal that includes a $600 million investment from Charles and David Koch, whose Koch Industries is a big player in the oil and gas business and whose philanthropy has long funded climate denial.

If that happens—and news reports indicate the deal could be announced as soon as November 28—it will be a tragic end to a Time story that was once glorious but turned sad as corporate woes increasingly affected the editorial product at one of America’s iconic news outlets. The story is not just about the fate of Time. The story is about the fate of the world.

Alexander thinks this sale could destroy us all: “Despite 30 years of scientific warnings about global warming, Congress has not passed an effective plan to slow the burning of fossil fuels. The Koch brothers, whether they understand it or not, appear to have plotted to destroy civilization as we know it for their own short-term profit.”

For much of Alexander's "glory days," we noted and quoted Time magazine's constant agitation for harsh environmental "solutions" like a dollar-a-gallon gas tax. MRC's Dan Gainor wrote a Special Report with Warren Anderson titled Fire and Ice that went in-depth to underline how these news magazines (and newspapers, too) used to warn of devastating global cooling.

Alexander then rehashes all the wonderful propaganda they have churned out, like making Earth the “Planet of the Year,” but sadly, the Kochs were supporting an opposing narrative:

While Time and other mainstream media were churning out factual stories about climate change, the Kochs and their allies were revving up their financing of an alternative narrative. Despite saying during his presidential campaign that the United States should reduce its carbon emissions to counter global warming, George W. Bush in 2001 rejected US implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, an international climate agreement. Jim Kelly, then our managing editor, promptly responded by telling me to crank up another cover story. Called simply “Global Warming,” it had a striking cover image showing Earth as a frying egg in a huge skillet.

I had the idea that the last page of the magazine should be an open letter to President Bush, urging him to recognize the peril of global warming and take action. This letter was signed by Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, John Glenn, Walter Cronkite, George Soros, J. Craig Venter, Jane Goodall, Edward O. Wilson, Harrison Ford, and Stephen Hawking. Kelly later told me that he feared my letter idea was “kind of cheesy” until an assistant to Hawking, the famed physicist afflicted by ALS, sent us Hawking’s thumbprint in lieu of a signature.

Harrison Ford, Walker Cronkite, and George Soros are quite the climatologists, wouldn't you say? 

But for so committed an ideologue, Alexander ended up taking a generous buyout from Time, and then just freelanced for the magazine. He was very upset when one climate package included the view of a skeptic, Bjorn Lomborg. But it could be even worse:

I concluded quite a while ago that my life’s work—the work I did to help insure that my two sons and now my grandson would have a decent future on a healthy planet—had failed. Now, if Charles and David Koch gain control of Time, I expect my life’s work to be repudiated in the very magazine in which it appeared. The thought is almost too much to bear.

I confess I don’t know what the solution is, but it is perverse and dangerous for two billionaires with no commitment to factual truth to be permitted to buy a magazine that has been a voice for reason and use it to further their narrow business interests. Are there no corporate white knights to save Time from the dark knights, as Jeff Bezos saved The Washington Post? For the moment, we will still have the harsh truth about climate change published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and, yes, The Nation. But the Internet is hurting those publications’ revenues as well, and what happens if they too get bought by dark knights with fossil-fuel money?

Alexander concluded with the thought that in line with his weather forecast, when the Earth starts to boil and fry, we will all realize liberal bias was the answer. "The ravages of global warming will become too obvious to be denied, even by the likes of Trump. But by then the damage to the planet may be irreversible, and my beloved Time, once a soldier for truth, may have fallen casualty to the forces of greed and deception."

[Boomer]

The Arctic Ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot, according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from Consulate, at Bergen , Norway

Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone.

Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes.

Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf stream still very warm.

Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared.

Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring and smelts which have never before ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing grounds.

Within a few years it is predicted that due to the ice melt the sea will rise and make most coastal cities uninhabitable.

* * * * * * * * *
I must apologize.

I neglected to mention that this report was from November 2, 1922, as reported by the AP and published in The Washington Post - 93 years ago.

This must have been caused by the Model T Ford’s emissions.

[jeannineinsd]

I agree with you. I haven’t seen a Time magazine anywhere, for at least a decade.

[Balding_Eagle]

The ‘Ben Shapiro revenge’.

He tells conservative college students to argue and protest until it comes time to take tests for the course.

Then it’s time to (evidently it’s always an anonymous Blue Book test) tell the Liberal professor exactly what they want to hear.

Graduate with the highest possible score.

Land a good job as a result, earning a huge salary.

Get wealthy.

Donate large sums to your college or university.

Then threaten to withdraw your donation unless they fire the professor who made life hell for you.

[Kaslin]

The author Tim Graham is not the subject of the article he wrote

The subject is the Slime editor Charles Alexander

[Taxman]

Well, if and when the Koch brothers acquire Time magazine and demonstrate a conservative editorial/news coverage stance (i.e., pro-America, pro-life, pro-2A, anti-large government, balanced budget, lower taxes, etc., etc.), I MIGHT start reading it again!

Go for it, Kochs!

[tinyowl]

" ... Can you imagine what it would be like to see your life’s work suddenly go down the drain? ... "

Note that despite his preaching about the end being near, his opening line is about ... himself.

Also, can he imagine all the peoples' lives and life's work gone down the drain or half down the drain because of the consequences of his religion?

Total delusion, total detachment from a thought process which doesn't involve themselves, couched as a 'philosophy of and for others.'

The devil takes many shapes.

[Chode]

OK Chucky, why don't you BUY the POS rag then?

[MNDude]

What’s he complaining about? It remains in the hands of a good globalist.

[Seruzawa]

What’s it selling for? $1?

[fella]

Go look at some Time Magazines from the 1950’s. The writing is clear, fair and informative and without a bunch of squed visuals.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

If the Kochs get a controlling interest in Time, it would be hilarious if they converted it into a stridently conservative magazine.

They would need a very stern editor, but I bet they could get some top notch straight news people from the online conservative websites, and more editorial writers than you could shake a stick at. And not a single useless journalism degree among them.

The main subject sections could include stuff that the leftist MSM utterly ignores, such as a good international section, a crime section, a corrupt politician-bureaucrat-judge section, and a homemaking/economics section. So much content.

[Beowulf9]

If that happens we could all sing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIW5ahdHs6s

[faithhopecharity]

I do like the idea of more conservative or at least moderate people going into the media business...its too choke-full of far leftist radical commie types now.

I just think Kochs would be far better off to start a new magazine or newspaper, at least if they pay more than, say, ten bucks for the Corpse of Time

corpses are of little value except maybe to McD’s

[samtheman]

Where’s the boo boo girl? Does anybody have the link?

[jackibutterfly]

"Where’s the boo boo girl? "

You mean, "the boo HOO girl."

[wjr123]

“While Time and other mainstream media were churning out factual stories about climate change” — who knew that Time did facts?

[Hardastarboard]

Koch Industries is a big player in the oil and gas business and whose philanthropy has long funded climate denial.

Hmmm - I'm a climate denier (there is a climate, but it's too darned cold for my taste, at least right now), and I've never received a dime from the Koch Brothers. Where did I go wrong?

[leaning conservative]

I thought Time had folded ages ago until I saw it at the dentist office. It was thinner than our little hometown newspaper.

[stylin19a]

...and a former Time science editor is so panicked ...

former ? that should really scare them out of buying....

[maine-iac7]

What is time - about 12 pages now?

‘gets any thinner, you’ll be be to see through it.

You’ve been running it into the ground, dumbo - just to push your agenda. Youhaven’t noticed it isn’t working?