A new trade association launching a PR blitz on behalf of various big agriculture groups is portaying itself -- falsely, it seems -- as representing small-time farmers and ranchers.

"The Daily Caller claimed on Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency is going to have to hire 230,000 new employees just to put new climate rules in place. And then others, including Fox News, repeated it." The Daily Caller's story was not only untrue -- it was not even plausible.

"I got a call the other day from some producers I very much admire. They wanted to talk about a series next year on global warming and I thought, why does this subject make me instantly tired? Global warming is important, yes; controversial, certainly; complicated (OK by me); but somehow, even broaching this subject makes me feel like someone's put heavy stones in my head. Why is that?"

Robert Krulwich reports for NPR's Krulwich Wonders blog September 26, 2011. [11]

"The glassy stares of the dead, the garbage piling up in the streets, the frightened, angry mobs smashing their way into drugstores and attacking food lines. The images in the thriller Contagion may be delivered with Hollywood flair, but they also have a ring of truth to those on the medical front lines.

"'There's a long tradition of people who don't like a particular message turning to attack the person delivering the message,' former Vice President Al Gore just said on NPR's Talk of the Nation."