Topic: CNSNews.com
Apparently, CNSNews.com is now in the right-wing press release business.
A Jan. 9 CNS article by Barbara Hollingsworth is, for all intents and purposes, a press release for the right-wing American Action Forum:
Regulations that went into effect in 2013 cost Americans $112 billion – or $447 million for each of the 251 days the federal government was open - according to a study by the American Action Forum (AAF), which predicts that the regulatory burden will increase to $143 billion in 2014.
“That’s in part because they’re going to finalize a lot of the big proposals that they had this year and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is going to regulate existing greenhouse gases from stationary sources for the first time, and we recognize there’ll be a big price tag for that,” Sam Batkins, AAF’s research director, told CNSNews.com.
“And in January, they are going to finalize new rules for cooling water intake structures for power plants to preserve aquatic wildlife, and we’re also going to see the final push of Dodd-Frank and Affordable Care Act implementation. There are two notable Affordable Care Act rules that will be finalized.”
Not only does Hollingsworth fail to mention the AAF's political bias -- it's headed by right-leaning economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin -- she also can't be bothered to solicit reaction to the study from anyone who might have a different view. AAF's Batkin is the only person quoted in the story.
CNS' Penny Starr performs the same service for the American Petroleum Institute, using a Jan. 10 article to tout that " A new report commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute stated that the United States, in partnership with Canada, has the energy resources to make the country completely independent of outside sources for liquid fuel supplies by 2024." Like Hollingsworth, Starr makes no effort to seek out other points of view, quoting only API sources.
CNS' parent, the Media Research Center, receives funding from ExxonMobil and pro-fossil fuel philanthropists like T. Boone Pickens, and Starr's article is in line with CNS' previous shilling for the oil and gas industry.
