Sacred Cows Skewered: Left Goes to DefCon1

I have a friend who once got a fairly conservative documentary about religious liberty broadcast nationally on PBS.  Naturally the left got mad, and flooded online fora with indignant complaints wondering how such a program got on “our” network.

So naturally when “60 Minutes” departs from the script, as it did last night with “The Cleantech Crash,” it was not a surprise to find out today that the left is upset.  Take it away, Puffington Host:

A recent “60 Minutes” segment is drawing sharp criticism for its pessimistic take on the green technology sector, which questioned whether clean tech has become a “dirty word.” . . .

One of the biggest issues with the segment, critics charge, is that it conflated the Silicon Valley clean tech venture capital scene with the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program for renewable energy.

Maybe they were conflated because the two realms were joined at the hip, by the explicit design of the Obama Administration.  But to continue with the latest primal scream from the Green Weenies:

Climate Progress’ Joe Romm contends that CBS missed the point by focusing on the failure rate of private-sector startups and “[failed] to understand that the successes more than pay for the failures.” It’s worth noting that as many as three-quarters of all venture-backed businesses fail, the Wall Street Journal explained in 2012.

Yeah, but at least they fail with their own money.  Joe Romm, rightly dubbed the Joe McCarthy of the climate campaign, apparently can’t grasp this simple point.

Beyond this little detail, more remarkable is how it necessary to mount the barricades in defense of anything connected to “green energy,” no matter how demonstrably stupid or economically ineffective.

But there’s a case of leftist indignation fratricide under way this evening.  MSNBC is in a snit about Eliana Johnson’s reporting about how MSNBC has stepped in to stop some of its hosts from stepping in it again, and how Rachel Maddow is the power behind the scene.  For the record, I do not believe that “Eliana Johnson” actually exists.  I think Scott Johnson made her up.  But in any case, “Eliana’s” follow up reveals the remarkable insecurity of MSNBC, which is understandable given that if one of their viewers catches the flu and turns of her TV set, their ratings plunge about 50 percent.  But why is the left in a snit about “Eliana’s” piece?  It merely says they think highly of Maddow (their highest rated host) and have put in place some adult supervision after some recent embarrassments.  What’s the matter with this?  Apparently, like green energy, you can’t even allow a mild implicit criticism of MSNBC go forth.

But do read the whole thing if you have a moment, and you’ll see a non-denial denial that you don’t even need to be Woodward or Bernstein to spot.  Didn’t Dan Rather warn the MSNBC folks about people named Johnson?

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