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Max Blumenthal, editor of The Grayzone Project, joins us to talk about his 10,000 word investigation of coordinated efforts by climate activists to suppress the documentary produced by Michael Moore, Planet of the Humans.Blumenthal’s meticulous investigative report is here.
This investigation was inspired, in part, by Blumenthal’s experience with a Democratic-driven effort to suppress his most recent book about Syria, The Management of Savagery; we compare that treatment to the marginalization of presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard by Democratic leaders.
He describes how Josh Fox, the producer of the anti-fracking documentary Gasland, organized opposition to Planet of the Humans, from the first day of its release in April. With allies including Bill McKibben and Naomi Klein, Fox demanded that websites take down the movie produced by Moore and directed by Jeff Gibbs. When that effort failed, they induced YouTube to temporarily remove it over a trivial claim of copyright infringement.
Blumenthal tracked the funders of 350.org and other climate activist organizations, and found that major financial support comes from foundations based on fossil fuel fortunes, like the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation and the Ford Foundation, along with tech millionaires like Eric Schmidt of Google and former Tesla executive Marco Krapels.
In our wide-ranging discussion, we talk about the criticism that was aimed at Moore and Gibbs–using corporate PR tactics–with very few responses to the central thrust of their film. We also discuss some of the fair criticisms of the actual content of the movie, including comments from listener Paul Ellcessor.