Source: Western Journal | BY BEN MARQUIS

There is a growing tendency among the those on the left to try to silence any and all opinions that dissent from their ideology, with the near-religiously fervent belief in “climate change” at the top of the list of issues in which this occurs.

One of the ways in which leftists seek to silence dissenting opinions is through the use of grossly unjust smears to discredit the reputation of the dissenter — such as referring to skeptics of man-made climate change as “climate deniers,” a clear and disgusting linkage to Holocaust “deniers” and 9/11 “truthers” — while the other method of silencing dissent is simply to deny it a platform from which to be heard.

NBC News anchor Chuck Todd utilized both of those methods to shut down dissent Sunday when he devoted the entire hour of his “Meet The Press” program to the topic of climate change but purposefully and deliberately provided only one side of the debate, the side he just so happens to agree with.

“This morning, we’re going to do something that we don’t often get to do: dive in on one topic,” Todd said to open his program. “It’s obviously extraordinarily difficult to do this, as the end of this year has proven in the era of Trump. But we’re going to take an in-depth look, regardless of that, at a literally earth-changing subject that doesn’t get talked about this thoroughly on television news, at least: climate change.”

We will pause for a moment so you can stop laughing at the ludicrous suggestion that the mainstream media don’t devote enough coverage to the topic of climate change. All better now? Good, let’s proceed.

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Todd continued, “But just as important as what we are going to do this hour is what we’re not going to do. We’re not going to debate climate change, the existence of it. The Earth is getting hotter, and human activity is a major cause. Period.

“We’re not going to give time to climate deniers. The science is settled, even if political opinion is not.”

Thus he effectively silenced all of those with a dissenting opinion by giving them neither the time nor platform to make their arguments.

The Washington Times noted that Todd stuck to his word and refrained from having as guests on his program anybody who strayed from the lockstep notion of man-made climate change.

Instead, his guests included a handful of climate change-supporting scientists and a handful of non-scientist climate change supporters — some of whom also are considering a run for higher political office — including California Gov. Jerry Brown and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

The truth of the matter is, there are very few serious people who “deny” that the climate is changing, as we as human beings have always witnessed the climate change over time for a variety of reasons — none caused directly by human activity — both throughout and preceding human history.

Where the debate lies is how much human activity these days contributes to the constantly changing climate, or more accurately, how best to address the potential — but far from certain — consequences a changing climate could have in the distant future, and whether the proposed solutions — many of which would destroy our nation’s economy — are worth giving a try.

But the “true believers” of climate change have no time for such debates — nor do they even want one, as they’d prefer not to have to answer troubling questions that might undermine the basic premise of the debate or query the efficacy of the proposed solutions.

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The tweet-trackers at Twitchy noted that several “true believers” in climate change took to social media to congratulate Todd for making the brave and “important first step” of essentially silencing voices of dissent and “sticking to facts,” even if those “facts” were one-sided and based on faulty and decidedly unsettled science.

There were plenty of others who dragged Todd on social media for his authoritarian-like silencing of opinions viewed as unorthodox by the left, with some accusing him of being “afraid” of opposing viewpoints, not understanding how actual “science” works — “facts” are always questioned, nothing is ever “settled” — while others simply accused him of censorship and virtue-signaling to his left base of viewers and peers.

Regardless of his reasons for doing so, Chuck Todd censored dissenting opinions from his program and undermined his own network’s claim of journalistic integrity, which would involve providing all of the facts and viewpoints on an issue for a debate that would allow viewers to make an informed decision of their own — not be told what to think and believe by their benevolent liberal overlords in the media.