After USA Today Issues Correction, Fox Host Repeats Smears Against Gore
Earlier this month, Peter Schweizer published a hit piece on Al Gore’s environmental habits. (Schweizer works at the Hoover Institute which has received nearly $300,000 from Exxon Mobile since 1998.) It was an obvious attempt to discredit Gore’s efforts to combat the threat of global warming.
The problem was the piece was inaccurate and USA today was forced to print a correction. That didn’t stop Rich Lowry, filling in for Sean Hannity, to repeat Schweizer’s false claims on Fox after the correction was printed. Lowry also took the liberty to add some new smears.
Video here http://thinkprogress.org/2006/08/22/gore-smear/
Here are the facts:
1. Gore does not receive royalties from a zinc mine. From the USA today correction: “In a column that appeared Aug. 10 on the Forum Page, writer Peter Schweizer inaccurately stated that former vice president Al Gore receives royalties from a zinc mine on his property in Tennessee despite his environmental advocacy…the mine was closed in 2003.”
2. Gore has never owned any Occidental Petroleum stock. His father worked for the company for several years and his parents used to own some stock. All of it was sold years ago.
3. Gore pays for his own carbon off-sets. Parmount is also purchasing off-sets above and beyond what Gore is doing individually.
The critics have no answers for Gore’s scientific arguments so they’ve decided to smear him personally. Desmog blog has more.