December 4, 2012

Coming up on Showtime

From Newsbusters:
Showtime Orders Up 'Titanic' New Documentary Series Pushing Global Warming Panic in 2013
Lacey Rose at The Hollywood Reporter underlined that Showtime is lining up the top talents in Hollywood and some big names in the liberal media for a new documentary series titled "Years of Living Dangerously." The executive producers include "Titanic" director James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who delighted liberals on climate issues when he was governor of "Cully-fornia." The narrators will include Alec Baldwin, Don Cheadle, and Matt Damon.

Then there are the New York Times writers: Thomas Friedman, Nicholas Kristof, and even food writer Mark Bittman (who argued for giving up "industrial meat" to save the planet). If that wasn't enough socialist credentials for you, they're bringing along MSNBC host Chris Hayes -- who argued before the election you could either vote Democrat (for your fellow humans) or Republican (for homicidal storms.) Showtime exec David Nevins naturally explained superstorm Sandy makes this series relevant:
"The recent devastation on the East Coast is a tragic reminder of the direct link between our daily lives and climate change," said Showtime Networks' president of entertainment David Nevins, who has been vocal about his desire to bulk up the network's documentary portfolio. "This series presents a unique opportunity to combine the large-scale filmmaking styles of James Cameron, Jerry Weintraub and Arnold Schwarzenegger -- arguably some of Hollywood's biggest moviemakers -- with the hard-hitting, intimate journalism of 60 Minutes veterans Joel Bach and David Gelber. I believe this combination will make for a thought-provoking television event."
Yes, perhaps because Showtime is owned by CBS, there are two 60 Minutes producers in the mix -- well, three. The series will also be executive produced by "Maria Wilhelm (Avatar Alliance Foundation), along with seven-time Emmy winner Solly Granatstein (60 Minutes, Rock Center With Brian Williams) and Dr. Joseph Romm (ClimateProgress.org) as a co-executive producer as technical adviser, respectively."
One year to make, three days to completely debunk. Bring it on... The article also reminds us of James Cameron's famous debate with some climate realists scheduled in August of 2010:
One of the invited skeptics, Ann McElhinney of NotEvilJustWrong.com, wrote about Cameron's surprise cancellation Sunday:
His representatives contacted myself and two other well known skeptics, Marc Morano of the Climate Depot website and Andrew Breitbart, the new media entrepreneur.

Mr. Cameron was attending the AREDAY environmental conference in Aspen Colorado 19-22 August. He wanted the conference to end with a debate on climate change. Cameron would be flanked with two scientists. It would be 90 minutes long. It would be streamed live on the internet.

They hoped the debate would attract a lot of media coverage.

"We are delighted to have Fox News, Newsmax, The Washington Times and anyone else you'd like. The more the better," one of James Cameron's organizers said in an email.
And then, the rules started changing:
McElhinney continued:
But then as the debate approached James Cameron's side started changing the rules.

They wanted to change their team. We agreed.

They wanted to change the format to less of a debate-to "a roundtable". We agreed.

Then they wanted to ban our cameras from the debate. We could have access to their footage. We agreed.

Bizarrely, for a brief while, the worlds [sic] most successful film maker suggested that no cameras should be allowed-that sound only should be recorded. We agreed [sic]

Then finally James Cameron, who so publicly announced that he "wanted to call those deniers out into the street at high noon and shoot it out," decided to ban the media from the shoot out.

He even wanted to ban the public. The debate/roundtable would only be open to those who attended the conference.

No media would be allowed and there would be no streaming on the internet. No one would be allowed to record it in any way.

We all agreed to that.

And then, yesterday, just one day before the debate, his representatives sent an email that Mr. "shoot it out " Cameron no longer wanted to take part. The debate was cancelled.
Morano wrote Monday:
Cameron backed out of the debate at the last minute after environmentalists "came out of the woodwork" to warn him not to engage in a debate with skeptics because it was not in his best interest. [...]

According to AREDAY organizers, activist Joseph Romm of Climate Progress urged Cameron not to go ahead with the debate as well.
Romm making this suggestion is certainly no surprise, for last April he got trounced in a debate with Morano. Dismayed by his defeat, Romm barred any articles by Morano to be linked to at Climate Progress and attacked me for writing about the encounter.
The truth is for me and not for thee. No wonder these morons do not allow themselves to be asked the tough questions -- even their standard-bearers like Joe Romm. Naaa -- we'll just throw a couple million into a pop-television series. Posted by DaveH at December 4, 2012 10:58 AM