'We Campaign' petition has 79,000 signatures; claims oil and coal industry ads as reason for not airing 'Repower America' TV spot.

The media in the hip pocket of big oil and coal? Sounds like an outrageous claim given how much those industries get blasted on the networks. But that’s just what the CEO of the Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection’s “We Campaign” has alleged.

CEO Cathy Zoi, in an Oct. 8 e-mail, complained that ABC, CBS and CNN aired TV spots for the oil and coal industry during the Oct. 7 presidential debate, but ABC was refusing to air theirs.

“Did you notice the ads after last night’s presidential debate?” Zoi wrote. “ABC had Chevron. CBS had Exxon. CNN had the coal lobby. But you know what happened last week? ABC refused to run our Repower America ad – the ad that takes on this same oil and coal lobby.”

The e-mail encouraged recipients to voice complaints about the network’s decision with the hope of the network airing the ad on the Oct. 10 broadcast of “20/20.” As of this writing, the site claimed more than 79,000 people had responded.

“I sent a letter asking ABC to reconsider their decision and put our ad on the air, but still we haven't heard back more than a week later,” Zoi wrote. “I think they need to hear from all of us. Can you help? Please send a message to ABC and tell them to air the Repower America ad this Friday on 20/20.”

The ad attacks “big oil” for spending “hundreds of millions of dollars to block clean energy” with “lobbyists, ads, even scandals.” It is 30 seconds and begins with a young girl stacking blocks, followed by a plea for wind and solar energy and ends with an attack on fossil fuel energy:

The solution to our climate crisis seems simple.
Repower America with wind and solar.
End our dependence on foreign oil. A stronger economy.
So why are we still stuck with dirty and expensive energy?
Because big oil spends hundreds of millions of dollars to block clean energy.
Lobbyists, ads, even scandals.
All to increase their profits, while America suffers.
Breaking big oil’s lock on our government ...
Now that’s change.
We're the American people and we approve this message. 

Although the global warming issue has not been as prominent an issue during the pending economic crisis, Zoi still takes a swipe at the oil and coal industries for their role in donating to party committees.

“As oil and coal backed groups outspend even major party committees in this political year, it's outrageous that ABC would deny our ad,” Zoi wrote.

According to the group’s Web site, the “We Campaign” is a project of The Alliance for Climate Protection founded and chaired former Vice President Al Gore. An article in the March 24 USA Today reported the “Alliance for Climate Protection” marketing campaign had a budget of $100 million a year over three years – “to focus on the urgency of the problems and solutions.”

ABC has hardly been a shill for global warming skepticism. The network, a division of the Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), has a special planned, “Earth 2100,” set for broadcast in 2009. It warns people that civilization is poised to go the way of the Roman Empire and the Mayan civilization. A preview video for the special includes NASA’s James Hansen and the Weather Channel’s Heidi Cullen, two of the most well-known global warming scaremongers.

According to a recent Business & Media Institute study, “Global Warming Censored,” ABC was the least egregious of the three broadcast networks on its global warming, but it still left a lot to be desired. ABC included more skepticism (36 percent) in its broadcasts than either NBC or CBS. Still, the network has plenty of work to do. Bill Weir made the outrageous claim during the Nov. 18, 2007, “Good Morning America” that “all these scientists” urge immediate action to stop global warming. Weather personality Sam Champion even referred to the most recent U.N. climate report as “unequivocal” and “definitive.”

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