What Danny Glover didn't say

Rush Limbaugh has aired an audio clip of the actor turned activist Danny Glover, in which he claims the Haitian earthquake was a result of our failure to agree a climate treaty at Copenhagen (1).

It is, of course, bullshit. Not what Glover said, but what Limbaugh said he said.

Here is the Limbaugh clip, with a transcript of what Glover says below. Glover is in conversation with a female interviewer (obviously, not Limbaugh).

I prepared the transcript myself, and will appreciate any comments or suggested amendments:



Here's the transcript:

"This is be a defining moment for this administration. Other countries in the region - I think Venezuela, Brazil, Cuba, and other countries - have already stepped to the plate [indecipherable] What happened to Haiti could happen anywhere in the Caribbean, to these island nations, you know, because of global warming, because of climate change, and all of it. And we need to find ... When we do what we did at the climate summit, in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens, you know what I'm saying. but we need to act now."

Pretty clear, huh? Obviously, Glover's a loon. Perhaps well intentioned, but clearly insane.

Not so fast. The actual interview has been heavily edited. Here's the fuller version (2), again with a transcript I've painstakingly prepared:



Transcript:

"I believe this is going to be a defining moment from this administration - what we live for, and a new relationship, a partnership with Haiti, not one of dominance, not one in which it tries to extract even more from the pain of the Haitian people, but a new relationship. And I think that other countries in the region, I think Venezuela, Brazil, Cuba, and other countries - have already accepted the point on this. This is a great moment for another type of internationalism, and I hope we seize this particular moment. Because if [indecipherable] could happen to Haiti, it's [indecipherable] that could happen anywhere in the Caribbean, to these island nations, you know. they're all in peril because of global warming, they're all in peril because of climate change, and all of it. And we need to find ... When we do what we did at the climate summit, in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens, you know what I'm saying. But we have to act now."

Notice, straight away, how much has been cut out, without any indication that the conversation has been edited. I've highlighted them in bold just to make them more obvious.

(One bit I'm particularly unclear on is what he says the other nations are doing. In Limbaugh's version, he seems to say they have "stepped to the plate," but in the full version, it sounds more like "Accepted the point on this." Anyone with too much time on their hands care to review?)

Then look at how the edits have changed the sense of what he's saying, in particular where they edit it to create the false sense that he says directly that the Earthquake was caused by climate change. In the full version, he's very clearly talking about how our failure to address the issue of climate change is going to see scenes like this replicated in years to come, and if we don't like what we're seeing on our TVs then we need to address climate change because otherwise we'll see more carnage and chaos in years to come. It might be fair to criticise him for using the Haitian tragedy to make a point on a different topic, but he is NOT suggesting that climate change caused this earthquake.

1 - "Danny Glover on Haiti - Rush Limbaugh Show," uploaded to You Tube by Dittopost, January 15th, 2010. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6fWBy9DEgk)
2 - "GRITtv: Danny Glover and Marie St. Cyr on Haiti," uploaded to You Tube by lauraflanders, 13th of January, 2010. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2ft5JkNWJA)