ah, liberal environmentalists, rich people with nothing to do...

from www.newsbusters.org
ABC's GMA, Brought to You by Honda, Says
Don't Buy Stuff

    Left wing environmentalist Sam Champion continued to push his eco-
agenda on Friday's edition of Good Morning America. The liberal
weatherman enlisted the help of IdealBite.com, a Web page devoted to
"green living." One of the site's founders, Heather Stephenson,
lectured a family interested in going green about the evils of buying
new toys for their children. She explained, "'Cause the best thing
that you can do for the environment, actually, is not buy more
stuff."

    The goal was to help the couple "get their green on." And while
some of the suggestions were sensible, others sounded rather
socialist. After encouraging a neighborhood "toy swap" as an
alternative to new toys, the other founder of Ideal Bite, Jennifer
Boulden, touted old jewelry. "And that's the best thing you do, in
terms of eco, is not have to buy new. People don't think about the
fact that when they're wearing new jewelry, it is from the Earth. It
has to be mined," she hectored. Isn't this more than a little
hypocritical on the part of GMA? After the segment ended, commercials
appeared advertising a new Disney movie, Amtrak, the newest cars from
Hyundai and Honda. Wouldn't it be best to watch an old Disney movie
and not encourage the making of new ones? Shouldn't eco-Americans
simply buy used cars and not patronize Honda and Hyundai?

    [This item, by the MRC's Scott Whitlock, was posted Friday
afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

    In more activist news, Elle magazine has awarded the
aforementioned Mr. Champion an "eco-illuminator" award in its new
issue. The publication openly phrased the meteorologist for inserting
an agenda into his weather reports:

SAM CHAMPION

Weathering Heights

One of the strangest disconnects over the past several years has been
that TV meteorologists have been talking about the unseasonably warm
winters, early springs, heat waves, and other erratic weatherâ€"yet,
until recently, they never mentioned the words global warming or
climate change. Champion changed that: On one of his first assignments
as weather anchor for Good Morning America, in late 2006, he traveled
to Iceland and witnessed firsthand the melting ice cap. Since then,
he's been saying the forbidden words loud, and saying them proud, to a
mass-market audience. "I have the perfect venue," says Champion, who
does one green segment a week. "People want to hear about it, and they
want to talk about it."

    See: Elle www.elle.com

    To show you what kind of company Champion is in, the magazine
also gave an award to this summer's Democratic National Convention, to
be held in Denver. "...They'll be in for the greenest Democratic
National Convention in history," Elle applauded. Finally, the magazine
also congratulated the work of No Impact Man, Colin Beavan.
NewsBusters readers may know him as the radical environmentalist who
is giving up, not just electricity, but also toilet paper. To bring it
full circle, Champion has twice promoted Beavan on GMA. As Earth Day
appoaches, viewers can expect more environmental lecturing from
Champion. One question though, are the expensive suits he wears second
hand? Does Champion know how much energy is wasted to make new ones?
See a June 26, 2007 CyberAlert posting for more on Beavan: www.mrc.org

    A transcript of the segment, which aired at 8:41am on April 18,
follows:

    SAM CHAMPION: We are counting down to Earth Day right here on the
old GMA show. Showing you know how to live greener. And this morning,
we're focusing on the little changes that can make a big impact on the
planet. Now, we've enlisted the help of our friends at the
environmental website IdealBite.com who are giving one family a green
make-over, you could call it. But it's something that we can all learn
from. Planet Earth, it's home to over six billion people. And we share
the planet with wildlife and plant life. So, how do we take care of
our most precious resources? Our loved ones. Well, maybe one step at a
time.
    HEATHER STEPHENSON: Hi, I'm Heather.
    JENNIFER BOULDEN: And I'm Jen from IdealBite.com.
    CHAMPION: Three years ago, Heather Stephenson and Jennifer
Boulden co-founded IdealBite.com, a website dedicated to helping make
our lives a little bit greener through simpler and practical bite-
sized tips. They believe that even the small steps can make a big
difference. o, we asked our ideal ladies if they could teach one
family how to get their green on.
    [Knocks on door of home. Rest of segment is Boulden and
Stephenson touring the home and making suggestions.]
    CHAMPION: Michelle and Scott McCuen (PH) have two very important
reasons for wanting a more eco-friendly life style. Four and a half
year-old Mason and two and a half year-old Maddix.
    SCOTT MCCUEN: We have two kids now and we just want to teach them
early how to help the Earth and, you know, teach them about green and
start them young.
    STEPHENSON: Yeah. Great. That sounds great. Let's get started.
The more we can look for toys that don't incorporate plastic in it,
the better. These are wooden-based toys, painted with environmentally
friendly paint. And what's really great about these toys, you know,
obviously they're going to grow out of them. You know, he's going to
grow up. They're going to grow out of them. They're going to want
other things. So, find a group of people and do a toy swap. 'Cause the
best thing that you can do for the environment, actually, is not buy
more stuff.
    BOULDEN: Let's go through the morning ritual. All right? You're
getting ready and reach for your shampoo. Who would have thought that
there's actually eco-shampoos out there? There's also organic beauty
products available. Same with your makeup. Here is a new idea. It's
basically your brushes that are often used plastic for the bristles
and raw materials. These are made out of bamboo, and recycled aluminum
and then synthetic bristles as opposed to animal bristles or ones
again that are petroleum based. And, lastly, you might be putting on
your jewelry when we're getting ready.
    MICHELLE MCCUEN: Okay. Yes.
    BOULDEN: And these type of items actually come from, like,
vintage. And that's the best thing you do, in terms of eco, is not
have to buy new. People don't think about the fact that when they're
wearing new jewelry, it is from the Earth. It has to be mined. A lot
of energy goes into that. A lot of chemicals are used in the mining
process.
    STEPHENSON: Here in your home office, we usually like to think
about two different ways that you can get a lot more green in your day-
to-day life. The first is dealing with paper. Print two sided. You can
set your printers settings so that you print double sided. Everyone
gets way too much junk mail. The average person, this is not going to
surprise you, gets 11 pieces of junk mail a week. If everyone in the
United States actually went online and signed up to have their junk
mail reduced, we'd save 11,000 trees. Really, look at the energy use
of your appliances. Something that most people don't know, is that
their appliances are actually using energy even when you're not using
them. So, perfect example, you guys have this cell phone charger
plugged in here. All right. 90 percent of the energy that this cell
phone charger uses is just evaporating into the air while it's sitting
here not plugged into the phone and not charging the phone. Most the
people don't want to be pulling plugs though into and out of the wall.
So, what you guys have already done, which is great, is you have a
power strip that has one of those on/off switches, so when you're not
here in your home office, all you have to do is just switch off that
switch. It's not only going to help the environment, but it's also
going to lower your electricity bills for your home.
    SCOTT MCCUEN: Great. Sounds good.
    STEPHENSON: It's good stuff.