Academy Award winner and former Vice President Al Gore blasted the mainstream media’s coverage of global warming and climate change due to the burning of fossil fuels at a media ethics discussion on Tuesday.

He said there are many reasons why world leaders aren’t doing more about global warming, “but one of the principal reasons in my view is more than half of the mainstream media have rejected the scientific consensus implicitly.

“They have failed to report that it is the consensus and instead have chosen balance as bias,” he said. “I don’t think that any of the editors or reporters responsible for one of these stories saying, ‘It may be real, it may not be real,’ is unethical. But I think they made the wrong choice, and I think the consequences are severe.”

Read the fuill story from the Tennessean here.

President George W. Bush is encountering stiff resistance from the Pentagon brass to the prospect of expanding the Middle East conflict to Iran. After acquiescing to Bush’s ill-fated strategies on Afghanistan and Iraq, some senior U.S. commanders are contemplating resignations if Bush presses ahead with attacks on Iran. The revolt of the generals may reach as high as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace.

For the full story on why Bush may be getting weak knees on Iran, go to the independent ConsortiumNews.Com.

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on critical legislation this week that could give workers back their ability to freely and fairly form unions.

“All too often in this country, when workers decide to stand up for themselves and form a union, they’re met with threats, intimidation, and discrimination,” says Liz Cattaneo of the American Rights at Work non-profit organization.

She is urging people who favor giving workers a “fighting chance,” to contact their Representative in support of the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800), which would strengthen workers’ rights and hold anti-union employers accountable.

“Thankfully, we now have a Congress that could do something about this crisis,” Cattaneo said. “This is a historic opportunity to secure workers’ rights for generations to come-but we can’t celebrate yet. It’s going to be a very close vote.”

Conservative, anti-union forces are busy mobilizing against this legislation, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation and more than a dozen other business groups. They are mounting a fierce campaign to stop the bill, inundating Congress with more than 10,000 e-mail messages and letters.

“In order to combat their well-funded efforts, we need to reach each and every member of Congress with letters from their constituents in support of the Employee Free Choice Act over the next few days,” Cattaneo said. “Too many families work harder and harder with less to show for it. While corporate executives net contracts securing themselves raises, benefits, and bonuses, workers haven’t had it so easy. America’s workers cannot afford to lose this opportunity.”

Learn more about the Employee Free Choice Act here.

To take action, go to this Website and sign up.

The Birder’s United bi-weekly online news letter touted LocustFork.Net as a “great Website for birders” on Tuesday, Feb. 27.

A Web site that may be of great interest to members of Birders United is LocustFork.net. The site covers a wide selection of issues of interest to birders including a news column and Weblog.

There is also a photography section. Note particularly the feature on the birds of Alabama. More than 71,000 people visit the site each month.

A Great Web Site for Birders

Thanks for the kudos…

If you are curious about the changes going on in American news gathering and delivery, from print newspapers to the Web, PBS Frontline is a good place to turn.

Drawing on more than 80 interviews with key figures in the print, broadcast and electronic media, and with unequaled, behind-the-scenes access to some of today’s most important news organizations, FRONTLINE correspondent Lowell Bergman examines the challenges facing the mainstream news media, and the media’s reaction, in “News War,” a special four-part series.

Series Synopsis

News War Intro