Frontline has produced pretty consistently terrific programs over the years.  I use both Hot Politics and Heat in my classes on climate change and on energy and the environment.  Another blockbuster program, Climate of Doubt, hit the airwaves this past week on PBS.  It looks very closely at the industry that has grown up around climate change denialism.  It pinpoints the fact that many millions of dollars have been spent by the likes of ExxonMobil and the Koch Brothers to fund this industry.  It documents the havoc that this disinformation campaign has caused.

Over my time blogging at the Foreign Policy Association, I called out some of these heinous efforts on the part of the fossil fuel special interests.  My writing on that, and defending the abundant and impeccable science, garnered attention from the folks who buy into this blather.  There are, however, superb sites, with insight far beyond my poor power to add or detract, that debunk the denialist Knownothingism:  RealClimate,  Skeptical Science, Climate Denial Crock of the Week, and Grist, foremost among them.

A superb book treating the entire dark modern history of commercial interests sowing disinformation is Merchants of Doubt.  It should be required reading for all environmental journalists.  Not incidentally, my book tells the story of the denialists and how the media, after spending years propagating lies, has, slowly but surely, come to properly report this most critical of stories.

Anyway, I suspect that Mitt Romney would get rid of Frontline along with Big Bird while he’s at it.  Too much truth for that crowd.  As much as they hate the idea, you just can’t have your own facts.