Media Matters Lies About The Heartland Institute — Again « Somewhat Reasonable

http://blog.heartland.org/2011/08/media-matters-lies-about-the-heartland-institute-again/

There's something very wrong with Media Matters constantly trotting out the old "they get money from ExxonMobil" argument against any group that questions anthropogenic global warming. You can't read the science journal Nature without being bombarded by ads by Shell Oil Co. Is Nature bought and paid for by an oil company? Is Media Matters tracking gifts from wind and solar companies to environmental advocacy groups? Why not?

As we've pointed out time and again, Exxon's funding was never more than 5 percent of The Heartland Institute's annual budget. And, in a key point, Exxon's support stopped in 2006 – before Heartland stepped up its involvement in the climate change debate and two years before our first of now-six international conferences. Doesn't journalistic ethics require that these facts be acknowledged whenever the charge of undue corporate influence is made? Of course, journalistic ethics and Media Matters aren't exactly frequent dance partners.