Oil And Water

As we get closer to our upcoming free screening of Rise Up! West Virginia, we're going to focus a bit on the intersection of the fossil fuel economy and the mainstream media. Today's installment comes from the heart of the High Country, courtesy of Aisling Broadcasting's WXIT 1200 AM.

For whatever reason, Aisling chooses to carry Rush Limbaugh--in addition to a full stable of other syndicated talkers--all of which are quite loyal to the rightist, pro-corporate philosophy of privatized profits and socialized losses. This, despite the fact that the Boone radio market has voted overwhelmingly for progressive candidates in the last few elections, and is a college town.

As big oil pours millions of dollars into the coffers of presidential candidates, and hires PR firms to tidy up their windfall profit laden image, we're hearing and seeing more stories in the corporate media that essentially say...oil's not so bad, after all...big oil is the new green...or our personal favorite...oil and water DO mix!

Here's an excellent example as brought to you over the public airwaves via WXIT 1200 AM: As Rush will make abundantly clear, oil has never done anything to negatively impact the environment. In fact, oil isn't bad at all--it turns out that the ocean likes to eat it:

On the August 5 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh said of the effects of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska: "The sea eats oil alive. That place up there, nature cleaned it up faster than we ever could."
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What is the damage? How has oil destroyed America? How has it destroyed people's lives? It's done just the opposite. Where does this come from? What in the world is the political calculation these people have to construct a presidential campaign based on the hatred of oil, as though oil itself is a conservative Republican? They're treating oil as if it were no different than Bush. They hate Bush, they hate oil. And both are irrational.
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Nature cleaned up itself so damn fast. It was such a laughable thing to watch people with dish towels and Dawn dishwasher detergent wiping oil off of the rocks at Prince William Sound.
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But anyway, the sea eats oil. The sea eats oil alive. That place up there, nature cleaned it up faster than we ever could.
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You see, it's very difficult to help people learn about the importance of switching to sustainable energy resources when you have flat-earthers of the Limbaugh variety spewing these lines. And yet there these people are--day after day--reciting their talking points like the good little force multipliers that they are.

Full audio, transcripts, and empirical data covering the environmental devastation of the Exxon Valdez spill here.