Tech Central Station (TCS, TCS Daily)

Background

Tech Central Station (TCS) is a now-defunct website that published commentary, news and analysis. From its founding in 2000 until fall 2006, TCS was run by the Republican lobbying firm DCI group and hosted by James K. Glassman, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).¹

In 2006, Tech Central Station was purchased by Nick Schulz who had been its editor since 2001. TCS announced that “on September 19, 2006, DCI Group LLC announced the sale of TCS Daily to its editor, Nick Schulz. As part of this process, our previous sponsorship agreements have expired. Updates about the transition in ownership will be posted on this page as they are available.”² ³

TCS was initially funded by a number of corporate sponsors including AT&T, The Coca-Cola Company, ExxonMobil, General Motors Corporation, McDonalds, Merck, Microsoft, Nasdaq, and PhRMA. TCS reported that all of these sponsorships expired at the time of the sale.⁴

In 2003, Washington Monthly wrote that Glassman and TCS had given birth to the concept of “journo-lobbying” in Washington. It also noted that TCS shared staff and offices with DCI group, the public relations firm running it. For example, four of the five co-owners of TCS were also co-owners of DCI group. Three of TCS’s sponsors—AT&T, GM, and PhRMA—had all used DCI’s services as well. The magazine notes that “it is startling how often the opinions of TCS’s writers and sponsors converge.”⁵

Contributors to Tech Central Station have included many prominent climate change skeptics, as well as individuals associated with a variety of conservative think tanks including the International Policy Network (IPN), the Sustainable Development Network (SDN), the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and the Scientific Alliance.

TCS Mission

According to an early archive of the TCS website, from 2000:⁶

“For too long, silicontrepreneurs have contemplated a false choice: ignore Washington or else descend into Gucci Gulch and behave just like old-fashioned special interests. Either stick to the business of making great products or else join the old game of pleading for special favors and urging restrictions on the competition. But there is another option – to promote an optimistic high-tech agenda of freedom and opportunity, with no apologies.

Our mission is to articulate that agenda and to embolden people who love technology and know that it can only flourish in a free economy. Ultimately, we want to convince policymakers that the tech industry’s future success rests on the same foundation that’s been essential to its brilliant history. Tech companies need an environment where the creators of new products are free to grow and innovate.“⁷

The group portrayed itself as an “online meeting place for technology news, analysis, and market intelligence providing a unique blend of investment insights, plus the one crucial ingredient for market success: a free-market agenda for high technology.”

Stance on Climate Change

Washington Monthly noted that after the launch of Tech Central Station, which boasted ExxonMobil as a sponsor, James Glassman began regularly attacking the Kyoto treaty and the science behind climate change—while he had seldom remarked on the subject before.⁸

“When it came to the subject of climate change, on which he had seldom remarked before TCS was launched, Glassman became equally prolific, attacking Kyoto or the science of climate change in 40 columns for the site, many of them syndicated elsewhere. Meanwhile, he also took to the op-ed pages of The Wall Street Journal, the St. Louis Dispatch, and The Washington Times to trash Kyoto; in none of them did he disclose TCS’s connection to ExxonMobil,” the magazine profile noted.⁹

ovember 28, 2000

According to a TCS press release, a report that claimed to challenged mainstream assumptions about climate chnage science “came from James K. Glassman,” wand was organized by climate change denier S. Fred Singer. The report criticized recent reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) coming out around the COP6 Climate Change conference in Holland:¹⁰

“Writes Glassman, Climate does change. It has changed for thousands of years, according to readings of ice cores and tree rings. The question is whether climate change will continue to be cyclical and out of the control of humans, or whether something utterly new is going on.”

Singer’s conclusion was that “The overwhelming data point to no detectable global warming over the past 60 years.”¹¹

Funding

Available records have listed the following Sponsors on the TCS website between 2001 and 2006. In addition to those below, Sourcewatch notes additional funders have included National Semiconductor and Qualcomm, although this information no longer appears to be available in internet archives.¹²

Sponsor	2001-12-14	2005-12-30	2006-01-30	2006-02-09	2006-03-17	2006-09-28
ExxonMobil	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
General Motors Corporation	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Freddie Mac		Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Merck		Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
PhRMA		Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
McDonalds		Y	Y	Y	Y
American Beverage Association		Y	Y	Y	Y
Gilead Sciences					Y
Nasdaq		Y	Y
AT&T	Y
Lockheed Martin	Y
Microsoft	Y

Koch Funding

According to publicly available 990 forms, the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation gave $25,000 to the Tech Central Science Foundation in 2004.

Exxon Funding

Tech Central Station was also singled out as an organization receiving financing aid from ExxonMobil. Two US Senators urged ExxonMobil to cease their financial assistance to such groups, including TCS:

“We are convinced that ExxonMobil’s long-standing support of a small cadre of global climate change skeptics, and those skeptics’ access to and influence on government policymakers, have made it increasingly difficult for the United States to demonstrate the moral clarity it needs across all facets of its diplomacy,” they said.¹³

According to ExxonSecrets, TCS received at least $95,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998.¹⁴

Key People

Name	2000	2001	2002	2005	2006	2007	2009	Description
Nick Schulz			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Editor in Chief
James K. Glassman	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y			Host
Alan Oxley				Y	Y			Co-Host, TCS Asia-Pacific
Craig Winneker				Y	Y			Editor, TCS Europe
Duane Freese				Y	Y			Senior Writer/Columnist
Max Borders				Y	Y			Managing Editor
Ray Patnaude					Y			Art Director
Matt Briney		Y	Y					Web Properties Manager
Sally Anderson			Y					Media Relations/Operations Director
Ted Jarrett		Y						Operations Manager
David Almacy	Y							E. Director
Justin Peterson	Y							Producer
Sallie Baliunas		Y						Co-Host ¹⁵

Authors

Authors listed at Tech Central Station, between 2004 and 2005, have included:

Adam Clayton Powell III
Adam D. Thierer
Alan Oxley
Alan W. Dowd
Alexandra Liddy Bourne
Allan MacRae
Andrew Bernstein
Andy Kessler
Ariel Cohen
Bartlett D. Cleland
Ben Lieberman
Benjamin Zycher
Bill Owens
Bjorn Lomborg
Bob Collins
Brian Doherty
Brian E. Finch
Brian Kennedy
Brian Livingston
Brock Yates
Bruce Bukiet
Bruce Fein
Carlos Ball
Carol Adelman
Charles Murtaugh
Chris Charuhas
Christian D. de Fouloy
Christopher C. Horner
Christopher C. Hull
Claude Barfield
Clyde Wayne Crews Jr.
Craig Winneker
Crispin Sartwell
Dale Franks
Daniel Drezner
David Boaz
David Brin
David Charles
David Mastio
David R. Henderson
David R. Legates
Dean Kleckner
Debbie Schlussel
Dick Armey
Diego Aycinena
Dominic Standish
Donald Rumsfeld
Duane D. Freese
E. Floyd Kvamme
Edward B. Driscoll, Jr.
Edward J. Renehan Jr.
Ejovi Nuwere
Eugene Miller
Eugene Volokh
Fraser Seitel
Frederick Turner
George Taylor
Glenn Harlan Reynolds
Gyongyi Gaal
Hans H.J. Labohm
Helen Smith
Helene Guldberg
Henry Cooper
Henry I. Miller
Herbert Inhaber
Herbert London
Hilary Kramer
Howard C. Hayden
Howard Fienberg
Hugh Hewitt
Iain Murray
Ingo Steinhaeuser
Jack M. Hollander
Jackson Kuhl
Jaffer Qamar
James A. Dorn
James D. Miller
James Freeman
James Justin Wilson
James K. Glassman
James Pinkerton
James V. DeLong
James Woolsey
Jan Arild Snoen
Jay Bryant
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Jeffrey Goldader
Jens Kyed
Jerry Bowyer
Jerry Pournelle
Jesse Walker
Jessica Davis
Jim Gilmore
Joanne Jacobs
Joe Katzman
Joel Schwartz
Johan Norberg
John Downen
John E. Calfee
John Farrell
John Merline
Jon Katz
Jon Reisman
Jon Robison
Jonah Goldberg
Jonathan Zuck
Joshua Elder
Joshua Livestro
Karl Hess
Keith Burgess-Jackson
Keith Henderson
Ken Adelman
Ken Layne
Kenneth Green
Kenneth Silber
Kevin Hassett
Larry Weitzman
Laurence Frost
Laurence J. Kotlikoff
Lisa Sonne
Lorne Gunter
Lucas Mast
Lynn Scarlett
Lynne Kiesling
Madsen Pirie
Mark McNeilly
Mark Steyn
Marlo Lewis, Jr.
Marni Soupcoff
Marta Glazier
Martin Agerup
Matthew Briney
Matthew Elliott
Meelis Kitsing
Megan McArdle
Melana Zyla Vickers
Merrill Matthews
Michael De Alessi
Michael Fumento
Michael Ledeen
Michael S. Malone
Michael Standaert
Michael Vlahos
Michelle Malkin
Newt Gingrich
Nick Gillespie
Nick Schulz
Nick Smith
Noah Shachtman
Patrick Cox
Paul Aligica
Paul J. Georgia
Paul Reiter
Pete Geddes
Philip Stott
Radley Balko
Ralph Kinney Bennett
Rand Simberg
Randall Lutter
Razvan Orasanu
Richard Perle
Richard S. Lindzen
Richard Tren
Robert C. Balling, Jr.
Robert J. Smith
Robert Krol
Robert Lee
Roger Bate
Ronald Bailey
Roy W. Spencer
Russell Seitz
Ryan H. Sager
S. T. Karnick
Sallie Baliunas
Sally Satel
Sandy Szwarc
Scott McCollum
Sonia Arrison
Spencer Abraham
Stephen W. Stanton
Steve Antler
Steven Milloy
TCS Staff
Thomas H. Lipscomb
Tim Patterson
Todd Seavey
Tom W. Bell
Tomasz Teluk
Veronique de Rugy
Virginia Postrel
W. Kip Viscusi
Waldemar Ingdahl
Walter Cunningham
Wendy M. Grossman
William Schneider
Willie Soon
Yuval Levin

Featured Authors

PR Watch noted in 2003 that Okonski had written an article for TechCentral Station during the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg where she had said “Africans are sacrificed on the altar of trendy green delusions.”²⁰

Actions

November 16, 2004

Willie Soon, Science Director at Tech Central Station and Sallie Baliunas, Enviro-Science Editor, Tech Central Station were among those listed as “climate experts” who signed an open letter to Senator John McCain regarding the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACAI). The letter suggests the Arctic has “experienced past warming that can not be attributed to greenhouse gas concentrations.”²¹

November 14, 2001

TCS columnist Duane D. Freese asserts that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change COP meetings “didn’t deal with the underlying science of climate change.” According to Freese, the science is not settled, and global warming could be beneficial:²²

“The problem with this settled science approach to global warming is that no one – other than extreme environmentalists – fully buys it. Scientists themselves disagree about the extent to which human emissions of CO2 have an effect on climate change, with some even arguing that any effect is beneficial.”

August 30, 2001

James K. Glassman interviewed Bjorn Lomborg, “The Skeptical Environmentalist” about his views on a number of issues including climate change.²³

“I try to say the Kyoto agreement, even if it was completed in full and the U.S. participated would do almost no good,” Lomborg said in the interview. “It would postpone warming for about six years longer than 2100. On the other hand, it will cost an amazing amount of money.”

November 28, 2000

James K. Glassman brought forward a report criticizing science behind the COP6 Climate Conference that was organized by climate change denier S. Fred Singer. According to the TCS press release:²⁴

“To examine the science of global warming, a group of seven scientists was brought together by S. Fred Singer, an atmospheric physicist who is professor emeritus of environmental science at the University of Virginia, the first director of the U.S. Weather Satellite Service and, most recently, chief scientist for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Singer’s conclusion: The overwhelming data point to no detectable global warming over the past 60 years. […]”

The group of “seven scientists” cited by the TCS report included G.R. Weber, a noted climate change denier from Germany. Glassman wrote that the seven “scientist” group also met for a press conference “laying out the case against warming or, more precisely, the case that we dont know enough about climate to be sure (or anywhere close to sure) that the Earth is getting hotter and that humans can do much about it if it were.”²⁵

TCS’s reporting of COP6 included interviews with a variety of climate change deniers, and generally put forward views not held by the scientific majority:

James K. Glassman. “COP 6 – Will Climate Change Accord Stall the New Economy?”
Duane D. Freese. “Climate Change Conference Faces Melt Down Over Solutions”
James K. Glassman. “Day 1 – TCS on Location at COP 6 Global Climate Change Summit”
James K. Glassman. “Day 2 – TCS on Location at COP 6 Global Climate Change Summit”
James K. Glassman. “Day 3 – TCS on Location at COP 6 Global Climate Change Summit”
James K. Glassman. “Day 4 – TCS on Location at COP 6 Global Climate Change Summit”
“Big Shot Interview”

Publications

Tech Central Station has routinely operated as an outlet for prominent climate change deniers. View the attached spreadsheet for a complete list of TCS Authors and Publications between 2004 and 2005 (.xlsx).

Below are some sample articles, by author, produced by TCS while in operation: