FIFTY years ago tomorrow, The New Yorker published a long article headed, simply, “A Reporter At Large”.

It wasn’t much of a headline. Nor was the subhead – “Silent Spring—1” – particularly informative. But The New Yorker commanded, in 1962, the sort of authority which no magazine editor (except, perhaps, the editor of Nature) could hope for today.

Too much competition, too little advertising and, of course, the internet. We have the web; who needs magazines mediating between us and the raw data of the world – particularly magazines edited by benign despots like The New Yorker’s William (but always known as ‘Mr’) Shawn?

But fifty years ago… A Reporter At Large begins in finest American Idyll style:

There was once a town in the heart of American where all life seemed to be in harmony with its surroundings. The town lay in the midst of a checkerboard of prosperous farms, with fields of grain and hillsides of orchards, where white clouds of bloom drifted above the green land…

Paradise on earth.

But a doomed Paradise:

ANY conference worth its salt needs a nice long list of sponsors to give the impression of widespread diverse support for whatever the conference organisers are advocating.

In the case of the Heartland Institute and their advocacy for the denial of the risks of human-caused climate change, their recent conference for climate science misinformers in Chicago can boast official supporters from as far and wide as India, England, Austria and New Zealand.

But one of the most devoted and long-standing group of supporters for their climate change denial conferences over the years has come from Australia. This year there are four Australia-based groups listed as “co-sponsors” and over the history of the seven conferences no less than nine different Australian groups have been happy to have their organisation’s name hitched to Heartland’s colours.

A mistaken impression could be that there’s widespread support for Heartland’s extremist views in Australia. The word “co-sponsor” gives the impression that these organisations are willing to actually give up money to support.

Yet in at least one case, and probably several others, being a co-sponsor is as easy as contacting Heartland and saying that you agree with them. The reality is that those supporting Heartland from Australia come from a small circle of active and loud free-market ideologues.

Take for example a first-time sponsor, the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance, an organisation launched in May this year by its executive director Tim Andrews. Mr Andrews has spent recent years in Washington being taught how to build a “grassroots” movement of free-market idealism in Australia similar to that of America’s Tea Party movement.

Andrews is a graduate of the Koch Associate Program, a scheme funded by the same oil billionaire Koch brothers who have been pumping millions into America’s climate denial campaign under the umbrella of a “grassroots” Tea Party movement. Andrews also worked for Americans for Tax Reform, which has also sponsored Heartland’s conferences. It’s a “grassroots” movement being created in the narrow interests of the likes of the Koch brothers.

As detailed in the business plan for the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance (ATA):

‘Since 2008, Timothy Andrews has resided in Washington DC learning effective advocacy and grassroots mobilisation techniques from internationally recognised campaigning leaders. He was employed for two years under the tutelage of Grover Norquist at Americans for Tax Reform, universally recognised as the U.S.’s most influential tax-reduction advocacy group. Timothy Andrews was also a participant in the Koch Associate Program, an intense year-long training program by the Charles Koch Institute to train a select group of activists to become more efficient agents for change.’

I asked Andrews about his sponsorship of the Heartland conference — and it turns out it doesn’t take much to get your organisation’s name on the list of conference “co-sponsors”.

read more:http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/environment/heartland-institutes-australian-climate-denialist-backers/