The Onion could not top this

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You might remember Daphne Zuniga from Melrose Place...

http://www.cnsnews.com//ViewCulture.asp?Page=\Culture\archive\200502\CUL20050210a.html

Forests Being 'Slaughtered for Toilet Paper,' Actress Declares
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
February 10, 2005

Washington (CNSNews.com) - An American television actress is blasting the U.S. news media for failing to report that "endangered forests are being slaughtered for toilet paper."

"I think there is a dumbing-down bias (in the media) frankly," said Daphne Zuniga, who starred in the television series "Melrose Place."

"The press is reporting things that are absolutely irrelevant to any of our lives and they are sensationalistic and it is damaging," Zuniga told Cybercast News Service. She made the comments Wednesday night at the Washington Press Club Foundation's 61st annual congressional dinner, which she attended as a guest of Congressional Quarterly.

"We start to think that these things are important, like [the rape trial of NBA star] Kobe Bryant and [the molestation trial of] Michael Jackson and yada, yada, and meanwhile, you know, endangered forests are being slaughtered for toilet paper, you know, sequoias -- whatever it is," Zuniga said.

Zuniga is a member of the Creative Coalition, a social and political advocacy organization with roots in the entertainment industry. Other Coalition members at the press dinner included actor Ron Silver of the "The West Wing," actress Fran Drescher from the television series "The Nanny," and Joey Pantoliano of HBO's "The Sopranos."

"I met a congressperson today and I am getting interested in coming to the Hill to express my issues, which are environmental mostly, but also [First] Amendment," Zuniga said. She said mercury emissions were her key environmental concern.

According to Zuniga, "One out of six women are toxic with mercury. Mercury comes out of coal plants and chlorine plants. I am toxic, I deal with symptoms, children are born with, you know, autism -- there is an epidemic in this country. This is like, the air that we breath," Zuniga said.

"Maybe it's not interesting, but it is definitely newsworthy...unless we have to wait for everyone to be drastically sick so we can sensationalize it," she added.

When asked about a series of new scientific studies showing that U.S. coal-fired power plants emit less than one percent of the world's mercury output, Zuniga responded, "That is false, it is not one percent.

"We (the U.S.) have a large percentage of the pollution...We have to be more responsible, we have more resources, and we use more and more," she added.

But as Cybercast News Service reported last week, several new studies show that if all U.S. coal-fired power plants were shut down -- resulting in zero mercury emissions -- worldwide levels of mercury would be only slightly affected.

The studies by the Center for Science and Public Policy (CSPP) also revealed that mercury emissions from Yellowstone National Park and other natural sources are significantly higher than the amount coming from the 1,100 coal-fired power plants in the U.S.

In addition, research has shown that elemental mercury levels in the oceans and the methylmercury traces in ocean fish were at higher levels before the advent of coal fired power plants.

"This hypothesis appears supported by the presence of higher levels of methylmercury in 550-year-old Alaskan mummies than levels in a recent sample of pregnant native Alaskan women, drawn from an Alaskan State study" said Robert Ferguson, in an interview with Cybercast News Service. Ferguson is the executive director of the CSPP, a public policy research group based in Washington, D.C.

'It's never totally objective'

Actress Fran Drescher also weighed in with her views on bias in the news media.

"It's never totally objective and it is a business and it needs to sell papers and magazines and get viewers to tune in. Everything has to be taken with a slight grain of salt," Drescher told the Cybercast News Service.

Drescher said she was in Washington to promote "more arts in public education, which she called "very important for the psychological growth of the child."

Drescher, who has been treated for uterine cancer, also promoted her efforts to increase public awareness of gynecological cancers.

"Johanna's Law is coming up for a vote [in Congress]. It is an education bill for informing women and their doctors about gynecological cancers, the early warning symptoms and the tests that are available," Drescher said. "It took me two years and eight doctors to get diagnosed," she added.