Fox guest likened Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth to Nazi propaganda films

Written by Ben Armbruster

Published

On Fox News' Dayside, Sterling Burnett, senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, called An Inconvenient Truth -- a new documentary on former Vice President Al Gore's campaign to raise worldwide awareness of global warming -- “propaganda” and added: “You don't go see Joseph Goebbels' films to see the truth about Nazi Germany. You don't want to go see Al Gore's film to see the truth about global warming.”

Discussing An Inconvenient Truth, a new documentary on former Vice President Al Gore's campaign to raise worldwide awareness of global warming, Sterling Burnett, senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, called the film “propaganda” and added: “You don't go see Joseph Goebbels' films to see the truth about Nazi Germany. You don't want to go see Al Gore's film to see the truth about global warming.” Burnett made his comments on the May 23 edition of Fox News' Dayside.

As the weblog ThinkProgress noted, the National Center for Policy Analysis has received more than $390,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998, and Burnett recently wrote an editorial defending former Exxon CEO Lee Raymond's retirement compensation (which amounted to $190,000 a day in 2005). The editorial did not mention Burnett's financial connection to the company.

Media Matters for America has documented numerous instances of Fox News anchors and contributors comparing progressives to either Goebbels, the propaganda minister in Nazi Germany, or the Nazi Party more generally. For example:

  • The O'Reilly Factor host Bill O'Reilly has compared Media Matters, Media Matters president and CEO David Brock, Air America Radio, filmmaker Michael Moore, and Air America radio host Al Franken to Goebbels. O'Reilly's Nazi comparisons have not stopped at Goebbels. He equated donating money to MoveOn.org with funding the Nazi Party while also likening those who have called for the withdrawal of troops in Iraq to Nazi appeasers.
  • Hannity & Colmes co-host Sean Hannity defended Focus on the Family founder and chairman Dr. James C. Dobson's claim that there is a “relationship” between embryonic stem-cell research and the Nazi experiments conducted on live humans prior to and during the Holocaust.
  • Right-wing columnist and frequent Fox News contributor Ann Coulter called Media Matters “little Nazi block watchers,” stating: “They tattle on their parents, turn them in to the Nazis.”

From the May 23 edition of Fox News' Dayside:

BURNETT: If I thought Al Gore's movie was, as you like to say, “fair and balanced,” I'd say everyone should go and see it. But why go see propaganda? You don't go see Joseph Goebbels' films to see the truth about Nazi Germany. You don't want to go see Al Gore's film to see the truth about global warming.