Down the memory hole: Rolling Stone erases ‘Climate Killers’ story
By Richard Pauli, guest blogger
23 September 2010 Every so often, Rolling Stone magazine presents some outstanding journalism. This is just my opinion. The recent issue has an exciting read about the science of ice. I am reading it now…It’s about glaciers and ice sheets and how ice is controlled by atmosphere and then how oceans affect ice — a dramatic depiction of the dynamic relationship. Halfway through the ice excitement, I went looking for the January 2010 issue of Rolling Stone — the cover was “You Idiots! Inside the battle over global warming”. Rolling Stone listed the 17 people whom it calls “climate killers.” It was powerful. It named, shamed and blamed. But I can no longer find those names listed anywhere on the Internet…at least not where it is supposed to be. They were there, but they have disappeared from the Internet. Even though the magazine presumably fact-checked and vetted, and even called it opinion. (You know, like opinions about Obama?) Rolling Stone must have hit a nerve, because this content has pretty much left cyberspace. And that is very hard make happen. It smells like the work of overpaid, crazed agnotologists (wizards that remove facts from the Internet). Try this simple question: Who are the 17 people that Rolling Stone called the Climate Killers? Go ahead. You do a search. Or you can still see it widely mentioned — just Google “Climate Killers RollingStone.com” Here is some background on the Rolling Stone story: Rolling Stone on ‘The Climate Killers: 17 polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb the climate catastrophe.’ (Earlier this year, these original links on Climate Progress worked fine.) If you have a print version of the issue you better save it, because it may be collectible. Now, to be fair, it may be that this once free-of-charge article has been put behind their pay section. If someone has an online subscription, please tell me. Google does not list or connect this Rolling Stone article any longer, not even in the cache. And I even noticed that the trusty Wayback Machine citation in www.archive.org is now only set to 2005 for RollingStone.com. That means they got to Google and to Archive.org. Some power there. (Hope this email gets through OK.) However a Bing search got a cached version of a simple list found on Stumblers.net (Thanks goes to Stumblers for holding on to this – for now.)
- Warren Buffett, CEO, Berkshire Hathaway (investments)
- Rupert Murdoch, CEO, News Corporation (Fox News, WSJ, MySpace, etc.)
- Jack Gerard, President, American Petroleum Institute
- Rex Tillerson, CEO, ExxonMobil (funding climate denial by the Heritage Foundation)
- Sen. Mary Landrieu, Democrat, Louisiana (campaign funding by Big Oil)
- Marc Morano, Founder, Climate Depot (funded by Richard Mellon Scaife); former producer for Rush Limbaugh
- Sen. James Inhofe, Republican, Oklahoma
- David Ratcliffe, CEO, Southern Company
- Dick Gephardt, CEO, Gephardt Group; Lobbyist for Peabody Energy; former US House majority leader
- George Will, Commentator, ABC
- Tom Donohue, President, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
- Don Blankenship, CEO, Massey Energy
- Fred Singer, Retired physicist, University of Virginia; former mouthpiece of Big Tobacco
- Sen. John McCain, Republican, Arizona
- Rep. Joe Barton, Republican, Texas
- and 17. Charles and David Koch, CEO and Executive Vice President, Koch Industries
You might want to save this list because it is now really hard to find on the Internet. And it may be harder to find as these folks try to influence the history of opinion. After a few hours of searching — thank goodness for the tenacious anarchy of the Internet — for a little while at least, you can see a temporary cache at http://weirddream.com/. They will probably get attacked by lawyers, guns and money, so see it fast before it melts away quicker than an Arctic glacier. And I am not sure what this says about Rolling Stone magazine — these were both great stories, but it says a lot about how journalism becomes history on the Internet. Back to the ice report in the current issue. Hope it’s still there.
So History is only around till it gets erased–but without hard copy as previously printed and fileable the ability to delete or modify the oh so temporary media of the internet has been greatly expanded. Only thing that may save us is mirror sites and broad redistribution and archiving here there and everywhere. Typically only the original site can be cleared easily. Great job uncovering this, Richard.
(Ominous music)…….
BUT WHAT ELSE IS MISSING????
Haha – Rolling Stone has a followup story, still available, in which Inhofe complains that he wasn't #1 on the list. There is a link to the original "Climate Killers" article, which only goes to the current politics page!
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/national-affairs/blogs/nationalAffairs_before_april/66325/66235
Great catch Richard!
Why isn't Al Gore on this list.
His carbon footprint is ten times the size of Warren Buffets.
or Princey Charley.
The Treehugger.com article looks like it might be pretty-much a cut&paste of the original:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/01/rolling-stone-17-worst-climate-deniers.php
Donna Laframboise
NOconsensus.org
We have surpassed even the darkest imaginings of Orwell. The internet not only changes our brains' synapses (see "The Shallows" by N. Carr) it also fiddles with our history while the seas rise. Get thee to HARD COPY! And remember: Electronic archives are ultimately useless and, clearly, far easier to manipulate.
Connie
History is getting purged.
It could be Rolling Stone editor, publisher and founder Jann Wenner, but somebody is taking stuff out of the
RollingStone.com database. You will have to visit a good library if you want to read all about it.
For instance Rolling Stone did a great article in 2006 by Robert Kennedy Jr. entitled "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?" You can see a photograph of the artwork for the story at http://www.rollingstone.com/music/photos/17383/121331/16
But again, you have to hold on to paper copy of the magazine because you cannot read the online story by Robert Kennedy. A search at RollingStone.com does not get you to the story.
Now it is possible that this was not a fair and balanced report… after all – Salon posted an article titled "Was the 2004 election stolen? No." And then talked about the article in Rolling Stone… so you can make up your own mind on the issue. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/06/03/kennedy But Rolling Stone seems to have decided to erase their record of even writing about the question. This was a pretty big article. They left some strong photos of the graphics http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/photos/18087/104309 So we know it was a big deal.
But the words are gone. The article is not there. Even from outside links and cached links are broken Was there a purge or a lawsuit somewhere?
You try: Just Google or Bing Search: "kennedy rolling stone was the election stolen?"
So as I am an older guy, I tried to remember Rolling Stone's biggest, most contentious story in all history. That would
e the cover story article on Richard Nixon quitting the presidency. Richard Nixon Rolling Stone Magazine Cover story on 12 Sep 1974 was called "The Quitter". The free world leader quits office just ahead of inevitable impeachment. A big story. As I recall they had essays from most all their reporter staff. But good luck reading it off the RollingStone.com site. http://www.barewalls.com/p/rolling-stone-magazine.html does not have it listed. Again, if they want to sell me the premium service, then perhaps they should list it as available anyway.
Check http://www.4waysite.com/articles/the_quitter74.htm
Now anyone has the right to sell out and change their political attitudes, but changing history is just plain wrong.
Good luck trying to find the 2006 article by Robert Kennedy "Was the 2004 election stolen?"
Or even the 1974 cover story article on Richard Nixon's exit "The Quitter"
All purged from RollingStone's site.
Better hold on to those libraries.
The article is indeed on the internet, thanks to the ever-valuable Wayback Machine, aka the Internet Archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/20100108140057/http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31633524/the_climate_killers