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."

[ClearCase_guy]

A free press is a fine thing — so long as only Progressives have one.

[Lurker]

Hey Timmy,

Get some friends together and pony up $700,000,000 and you can outbid those scary Koch brothers.

L

[Grampa Dave]

This is just another example of why progressives hate a free market!

[ptsal]

I hear Obama has plenty of space at his digital library. Pack the hard drives and move-on.

[Grampa Dave]

Newsweak sold for a $.*

Slime is not worth anymore.

*Newsweek Sells For $1 To Stereo Equipment Mogul Sidney Harman ...

www.businessinsider.com/its-official-newsweek-will-be-sold-to-former-stereo-equipm...

Aug 2, 2010 - Newsweek Sells For $1 To Stereo Equipment Mogul Sidney Harman. It’s official: Newsweek will be sold to former stereo equipment mogul Sidney Harman, who reportedly bid $1 “in exchange for absorbing Newsweek’s considerable financial liabilities,” according to Jeremy Peters of The New York Times and Nat Ives of AdAge.

[SaxxonWoods]

Bwahahahaha!!!

[lee martell]

30 years ago, this would have rocked the media world’s socks off! Now, does it even matter who buys Time? What remains of Time has become a shill of the Democrat Party. Same as with GQ.

[Spktyr]

This sounds like an excellent reason for the Kochs to buy Time.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

There are worse things than working for Charles Koch.

[blackdog]

What a climate crusader Timmy is! It takes a pretty tough guy to take on the sun, solar winds, geomagnetic fields, ocean currents, and all those elemental gasses.
Maybe in his new gig he could give God and nature some consulting work? Pro bono of course.

[newfreep]

I’m an entrepreneur in the high-end audio industry. The company “Harman-Kardon” was at one time a designer of high-end audio products. Here’s an interesting blurb in Wiki....

“After graduating with a physics degree, Sidney’s first job was at the David Bogen Company as an engineer. His boss was Bernard Kardon, and roughly thirteen years later each invested $5,000 to make the Festival D1000, the world’s first integrated hi-fi receiver.

Sidney Harman and Bernard Kardon founded Harman Kardon in 1953.”

[jonascord]

Timmy should consult his Funk 'n Wagnalls about "schadenfreude"...

Sorry, can't stop laughing about this pseudo-scientist and how his life's work of peddling Leftist lies becomes a smoking crater.

[faithhopecharity]

What’s left to buy? We haven’t even seen a Time magazine on any newsstands or at the bookstores or groceries - or even at the doctors office - in YEARS. Time self- destructed with its FakeNews a long time ago. Koch can probably buy Time for about 98 cents. Just to give it a proper, and long- overdue burial.

[Bonemaker]

“The thought is almost too much to bear.”

Then do the right thing,..kill yourself you crazy bastard.

[Maceman]

[mac_truck]

[SandRat]

The Koch Brothers Will Ruin His Life (and Earth) by Buying Time. Hurry up and more, loys more!

[Spktyr]

I agree, but this little snowflake seems to think it will be the end of the world if he has to. I figure either he’ll commit suicide (which will be fine by me) to avoid it or he’ll actually work for the Kochs and discover his worldview was totally, completely wrong.

[Boomer]

Glo-Bull warming is all crap.

‘We Faked It!’ – Top Obama Official Stabs Him In The Back With Huge Admission

Mail on Sunday attacked over 'fake global warming graph'

The crap keeps piling up more all the time. Gonna make a shit load of fertilizer. All puns are intended. :)