Comments Colburn has made

  • $75 a gallon?

    "...until the end of 2008 or until oil drops below $75 a gallon, whichever comes first."

    I knew the price of oil had gone up. I didn't know it had gone up THAT much! I assume that should be $75 a barrel.On Dems and GOP agree to stop filling Strategic Petroleum Reserve posted 1 year, 6 months ago 10 Responses

  • Re: Whoa whoa

    David,

    When you said "They look bad if they play along and bad if they try to play it straight. It just ends up being awkward and conveying virtually no information. Why bother?" I understood you to mean "Why should people like Jones bother going on the show if they end up looking bad and conveying virtually no information?"

    After reading your post again, I realize you may have meant, "Why should I bother watching?" If you meant the latter, then I have no problem with that.On Van Jones on Colbert Report posted 1 year, 8 months ago 12 Responses

  • Chasing eyeballs

    "If only a couple of Colbert's viewers look up Van Jones and his work, that is a great victory."

    And even if none of them go look up Van Jones and his work, they will at least know what "green-collar" is all about, so that when a candidate for elected office comes along and talks about creating green-collar jobs, they will understand what that means and (we hope) be more likely to support that candidate.

    It's a shame that a lot more people learn about the world from the Colbert Report than from Grist, but given that it's the case, I think it's important for people like Jones to go where the eyeballs are.On Van Jones on Colbert Report posted 1 year, 8 months ago 12 Responses

  • Why bother? To spread the word!

    "They look bad if they play along and bad if they try to play it straight. It just ends up being awkward and conveying virtually no information. Why bother?"

    I totally disagree. As long as guests don't make the mistake of either being too self-righteous or alternatively trying to out-Colbert Colbert, then they usually come off looking decent, AND they get several minutes to make their case to a large demographic that doesn't read Harper's or watch the PBS Newshour. This interview conveyed virtually no information to people such as you who are already well-informed about green-collar jobs, but you aren't the kind of person Jones was trying to enlighten by going on the show.

    As I see it, Jones got several minutes of time to explain his point of view to over a million young people, albeit with some heckling from Colbert (which is good, because it keeps today's ADHD TV audience from getting distracted or bored). If people had never heard the term green-collar before, then they would learn more about the idea from this interview than they're likely to learn on the network evening news broadcasts or the cable news channels. Bravo to Jones for going on the show, and bravo to Colbert for having him.On Van Jones on Colbert Report posted 1 year, 8 months ago 12 Responses

  • Borenstein was on TV last night re peak oil

    Borenstein also happened to be on the 10 o'clock news here in the SF Bay Area last night. (I was surprised to see a several-minute feature on peak oil -- not typical local newscast fare, although the sensationalism of peak oil doomsday scenarios probably attracted the producers.) The report featured a San Francisco Supervisor (i.e. city councilman), who is a peak oil cassandra, and Borenstein, who was dismissing concerns about peak oil by reassuring people that technological advances -- he didn't mention any in particular -- would easily fill the gap left by vanishing petroleum.

    Given the limitations of TV news, viewers were left with essentially no information on which to base a judgment about the merits of the issue, but I was pleased to see that at least energy issues were being taken seriously on a local TV newscast. The report was on KTVU, but I can't find anything about it on their website.On Borenstein analysis of solar PV misses the point of California's solar program posted 1 year, 9 months ago 10 Responses