re-posted from 1Sky’s Skywriter Blog on October 29, 2010
Post from Andrea Cuccaro, 1Sky Florida and South Carolina organizer
We need five minutes from our friends in Florida to write a letter to their local newspapers and to the senatorial candidates offices about strange doings at a Orlando television station over some tough questions on climate and our clean energy future (see below).
It’s been a fantastic week of action here in Florida, here’s the full story:
On October 19th, 1SkyFlorida held rally outside the Ft. Lauderdale Senate debate at Nova Southeastern University (video by 1Sky supporter Juan Carlos Gallo).
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D92hPca9NpY&feature=player_embedded
On October 24th, another 1SkyFlorida rally was held outside the Tampa debate with Southern Energy Network’s student activists. All candidates saw us, and had to walk past us chanting in order to get into the debate:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMg3Cshwhhs&feature=player_embeddedAll this week: 1Sky activists from around the state rallied outside candidate rallies.
Then on Wednesday, October 27, before the final Senate debate — which took place at NBC’s local WESH studios in Orlando — between 30 and 50 1Sky activists called the studio and campaign offices for all three candidates. We asked the studio and candidates to discuss in the debate whether or not they would refuse money from Big Oil and Dirty Coal special interests who heavily lobbied and spent campaign funds for various leaders in the U.S. Senate this year to kill the climate bill and deny climate change. They are still attacking the EPA’S authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act in Congress now.
The studio refused to ask our question, and even censored activists in the live blog feed on the website where the debate was shown whenever we mentioned the 30 to 50 activists who called to ask our question, and whenever we made a connection to Big Oil and Dirty Coal money and denying climate change.
What is NBC hiding?
We have a few days left- please write a letter to the Orlando Sentinel and your local newspaper today to elevate the importance of leaders discussing this issue. We are gaining attention from senatorial candidates (Crist, Meek, and Rubio), their campaign staff and the media by rallying outside many of their events. Your actions can make a difference:
1) Write to your local newspaper from www.publishaletter.com
3) Write to Charlie Crist’s press secretary at [email protected]
4) Call Kendrick Meek’s campaign at: 1-877-465-0976
5) Write to Marco Rubio’s campaign: http://www.marcorubio.com/contact
Sample talking points (please write in your own words).:
1) A powerful clean energy movement around the state has rallied outside of THREE debates to urge leaders to refuse Big Oil and Dirty Coal money, work for clean energy, and to protect the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, currently under attack in Congress.
2) Before the final debate, 1SkyFlorida mobilized activists to urge NBC’s WESH studio debate host, David Gregory, to ask if leaders would refuse Big oil and Dirty Coal money, protect Clean Air and work for clean energy, as these interests killed the climate bill in the U.S. Senate this year. Between 30 and 50 citizens called the WESH/ NBC studio that was hosting the debate and the 3 campaign offices for Crist, Meek, and Rubio.
3) NBC refused to incorporate the question, insisting to activists all day that questions were already written. What’s more, NBC’s debate blog live feed moderator, Gabe Travers, censored our activists when they pointed out the number of citizens who called their studio to ask this question, and when we made a connection between leaders accepting Big Oil and Dirty Coal money and messaging and policies to deny climate change. What is Travers hiding? Who is NBC/WESH protecting?
Thanks for all your support!