Obama’s Science Czar, Propagandist?
[Guest post by DRJ]
CNS News reports Obama Science Czar John Holdren once advocated America and other nations should force TV and radio stations to promote population control and environmental issues:
“The FCC might be empowered to require that networks donate time for ads to awaken people to the population-resource-environment crisis,” the authors [of Ecoscience, John P. Holdren and Paul and Anne Ehrlich] wrote. “Such spots, sponsored by voluntary organizations like Planned Parenthood, ZPG, and the Sierra Club, have been moderately effective in drawing public attention to the problems. Unfortunately, the advertising budgets available to these groups are puny compared to those of General Motors or Exxon.”
Holdren is President Barack Obama’s top adviser on public policy issues pertaining to science and technology. At the time Ecoscience was published, he was an associate professor of energy and resources at the University of California-Berkeley.
The passage about using the FCC to force broadcasters to air advertisements about “the population-resource-environment crisis” is in a chapter of Ecoscience entitled, “Changing American Institutions.” One of the subheadings in this chapter is “Programming and propaganda.”
The authors argue for state-sponsored propaganda presented as entertainment:
“Much programming ought to be informational, even if presented as entertainment,” wrote Holdren, Ehrlich and Enrlich. “People in the LDCs [less developed countries] need help in increasing agricultural production and improving public health, as well as information on the need for population control and the ways it may be achieved.”
“Programming should be carefully designed by social scientists and communications experts thoroughly familiar with the needs and attitudes of the audiences in each country or locality,” they wrote. “This is particularly important in LDCs, where it will be especially difficult because of the lack of trained people and the radical change in attitude that is required. Control of the communications media obviously should be public, with maximum safeguard against abuses and against the problems of ‘cultural homogenization.’ The problem of controlling ‘Big Brother’ will be ever present in all societies.”
CNS says the White House has not responded to a request for comment.
More on Holdren’s extreme views here and here.
— DRJ
Holdren is one of the most dirty socialist amongst the entire group of dirty little socialists. The MSM, surprise surprise, never asked about any of this.
JD (c5afb1) — 10/17/2009 @ 8:54 pmSubstitute global warming for population crisis. Lather, rinse repeat.
Chris (a24890) — 10/17/2009 @ 9:06 pmI needz to be told what to do cuz I’m too stupid to decide for myself. Ya know us dumb folk don’t read so I listen most to Homer Simpson ‘n Oprah ‘n CSI for how to live my life.
Next week ABC will start lettin’ the guvmint tell it what to put on tv. Can hardly wait.
in_awe (a55176) — 10/17/2009 @ 9:07 pmHoldren is a perfect example of a leftist scientist. Theory first; facts later.
Mike K (2cf494) — 10/17/2009 @ 9:11 pmViva la Propaganda! Control the food and water and soon you control the people! Resource issue my a$$, turn the water back on in the Central Valley grow food not weeds. Environment crisis due to self inflicted propaganda taxes. Nice Ideas Mister Science Czar
Sanmon (319c0c) — 10/17/2009 @ 9:18 pmI’m sure he’s already all over it but I just forwarded a link to this to Glenn Beck.
Aunt Cranky (eb0d5c) — 10/17/2009 @ 9:18 pmIt never ceases to amaze me how certain people like this are that they are right. You can’t seriously propose educating people to “critical” positions unless you’re far beyond convinced that you have absolute truth. That’s amazing to me–a lot more effrontery than modern Christianity possesses, for example.
Anwyn (a130c1) — 10/17/2009 @ 9:19 pmCan’t seriously propose educating them more or less by force, I mean, by controlling media resources by fiat.
Anwyn (a130c1) — 10/17/2009 @ 9:23 pmThe FCC requiring networks to donate airtime to Planned Parenthood.
Government-
enforcedendorsed population-control-through-abortion ads.Oh! And they want to control the content of this programming, as well.
Goody! For the first PP program they can feature The Messiah’s “I don’t want [my daughters] to be punsihed with a baby,” clip.
Icy Texan (6fdd44) — 10/18/2009 @ 1:12 amJohn P. Holdren, along with his guru/crony Paul Ehrlich (not the one who gave us the “magic bullet”, has been wrong about every one of his predictions since the 60s! I recomend Julian Simon”s book _The Greatest Resource 2_ (includes and develops on the earlier _The Greatest Resource_)for the details. This is like having an astrologer in charge of NASA!
John Costello (3a9b8c) — 10/18/2009 @ 7:01 amBeck has hammered this guy and the other stupid czars relentlessly.
Accept (e4735c) — 10/18/2009 @ 7:18 amMaybe it’s time our so-called Republican and Conservative reps get off their asses and start fighting instead of leaving it to Right Wing blogs, talk radio, Sarah Palin and tea parties. When is the last time a single representative from the right got the ball rolling against the Liberals?
Tea Party marches? Nope, that was grassroots.
NEA? Nope, that was Beck and the Right Wing blogs.
Van Jones? Nope, that was Beck.
Healthcare battle? Nope, that was Palin posting at MySpace that got that started.
Acorn? Nope, that was two kids with a video camera.
Notice a pattern here?
Holdren, is like a character out of “Fringe” you can’t imagine a figure like that, existing much less the President’s top scientific advisor
bishop (7610cb) — 10/18/2009 @ 7:43 amGood point, Accept. I’d like to see Holdren asked by Congress if he still has those views. Another reason to eliminate the FCC.
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407) — 10/18/2009 @ 7:57 amDoes anyone remember the great flick from the late 70’s, called Network? Paddy Chayefsky was doing a parody of what a news network could become if it was really takn over by radical left – wing nutbags. The parody has now become the reality.
Dmac (5ddc52) — 10/18/2009 @ 8:13 amSoon Obama will make a speech and say mockingly, “I don’t wanna run TV and radio!”
Then he’ll clamp down on TV and radio.
Patricia (c95a48) — 10/18/2009 @ 8:45 amIt’s truly surprising and puzzling that the current White House is in bed with ultra-liberals. Obama gave no inkling of leaning in that direction before he won the election last year. I mean I truly believed him when he said that in almost 20 years of sitting in Jeremiah Wright’s church he had never noticed a lot of extremist “Goddamn America” rhetoric. Yep, I really thought the guy now in the Oval Office was being truthful.
And so now we in America are Goddamned.
Mark (411533) — 10/18/2009 @ 10:00 amSix months after becoming chancellor of Germany in 1933, Hitler gave a speech to the main labor federation on May Day that lauded the labor movement. By that evening he had imposed draconian measures on labor that essentially put the unions out of business. Friend in the morning, maximum leader with bite in the afternoon.
sam (fa6f62) — 10/18/2009 @ 10:02 amActually a whole bunch of channels are like UBS, the eponymous network. Fox with Glenn, but Keef is the poor man’s Howard Beale. There’s no one with the gravitas of William Holden’s character
bishop (4e0dda) — 10/18/2009 @ 12:09 pmprobably since Brit gave up the anchor chair. Then again CCA could be GE with it’s
administration ties in everything including cap n trade
Civil war would go a long way toward population control. Since the conservatives have most of the guns, we know who should win and who should be “re-educated”.
Zelsdorf Ragshaft III (f3769d) — 10/18/2009 @ 1:00 pmThis is the guy who should be driving one of NBC-News’ side-saddle tank pick-up trucks…
AD - RtR/OS! (ca25a6) — 10/18/2009 @ 4:24 pmwhen he departs the scene, no-one will feel any great loss.