Little is ever said when environmental reporters brag to their colleagues about crossing the line from reporting to advocacy, but let a writer express doubts that the end is near and the National Environmental Trust, fresh from harassing two science journalists at the New York Times, is quick to expose him as part of the global "conspiracy." In this latest go 'round, Wall Street Journal environmental writer John Fialka is the mouthpiece for the NET.

Copyright 1998 Salon magazine

C o o l on global warming: Is it a conflict of interest for a Newsweek editor to rally anti-environmentalists?
BY SUSAN LEHMAN

Does global warming pose a real threat to civilization as we know it? Scientists and policy makers aren't sure. But Newsweek contributing editor Richard Thomas has made up his mind.

Addressing a Sept. 16 conference at the Annapolis Center, which the Wall Street Journal revealed to be a front organization for the National Association of Manufacturers -- a group that opposes clean-air legislation -- Thomas denounced the environmental movement, the Clean Air Act, the EPA, the supposed danger of global warming, Vice President Al Gore, President Clinton and the attorneys general who "abdicated their responsibility" and settled litigation against the tobacco companies.

Critics say Thomas' remarks raise questions about his journalistic objectivity. "Here's someone who the public tends to rely on and he's clearly saying things that call into question his objectivity and knowledge of the issues and were, quite frankly, off the wall," says Frank O'Donnell, executive director of the Clean Air Trust. O'Donnell, who was present and took notes on Thomas' speech, claims Thomas decried media coverage of environmental subjects as "press hysterics," derided fellow Newsweek staffers as "environmentally cuckoo," referred to the "environmental coterie" that edits his stories at Newsweek, announced that "computer projections of global warming have to be wrong" and opined that the debate over global warming would eventually "embarrass environmentalists and be a big plus for us."

Thomas, an economics reporter who covers environmental stories and a Newsweek veteran since 1962, says O'Donnell didn't get his remarks right. For one thing, Thomas says, he said some members of the press were "environmentally cuckoo" but did not say anything about his Newsweek colleagues or editors. "It looks to me like the National Environmental Trust reporter did not like the truth of some of the things I said and edited them to make me look foolish or hysterical or wrong," says Thomas.

The question of whether O'Donnell got the remarks right could easily be resolved if the Annapolis Center would release the tape of the proceedings it promised, in pre-conference literature, to make available. Alas, Richard Seibert, the center's founder and CEO, says the quality of the tape isn't good enough to release -- though the center is glad to supply a written transcript that was edited by Thomas.

Meanwhile, in another twist, Seibert says there is no connection between the Annapolis Center and the National Association of Manufacturers. "The Wall Street Journal got it wrong," Seibert says, explaining that Journal reporter John Fialka was "under a deadline and didn't check it out."

"Oh, please," says Fialka, noting that he spent three weeks on the piece (which also mentioned that Seibert served as vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers). "This wasn't something we dashed off on a deadline. I don't know where he got that!"

In a letter faxed to Seibert and Newsweek's top brass on Tuesday, the National Environmental Trust requested that full, unedited audio and print versions of Thomas' remarks be made available to the public and the press.

"If Thomas' views are so strong, why doesn't he write essays?" asks O'Donnell. Thomas says that "my views on environmental issues are my views," but argues that when he reports an environmental story, "I don't report my views, I report the views of the major players."

Does a conflict arise when a Newsweek reporter espouses extreme views to a partisan audience? Newsweek's Washington bureau chief, Ann McDaniel, says, "The magazine feels it is inappropriate for full-time staff workers to express strong views in public forums." Contributing editors, McDaniel says, are asked to keep the magazine informed of their speaking engagements. "We monitor such activities so as to avoid direct conflicts of interest," she said. McDaniel refused to say whether the magazine had known about Thomas' extracurricular speaking activity before the National Environmental Trust letter arrived on Tuesday. "We never comment publicly on personnel matters," she said.