Quote:
Originally Posted by foreverwar
Hee hee - I will bear that statement in mind, next time any "simple" statements are used in a debate in the Cable Forum. 
As I said, I think what the Oil companies are doing is equivalent to what the Tobacco companies did (and are still trying to do) at the end of the 20th Century - however, trying to "ban" the funding of research sets an awfully dangerous precedent; let's hope no fundamentalist vegetarian anti-vivisectionists get in charge, or they could "ban" medical research based upon animal testing (but, as you say, that's another thread).
As you have so often said in other threads, these rights are fundamental, and any encroachment on them weakens them.  |
of course the rs doesnt actually have the power to prevent exxon funding 'research' so their right to free speech isn't denied.
one of the key points here is that exxon is funding multiple organisations (which the rs says are of dubious origin) rather than a single, reputable scientific orghanisation. This, the rs alleges, suggests that opposition to the general scientific consensus is more widespread than it in fact is. In short, my reading is that they are saying its just a pr tactic.