Conservatives Give a Hoot

From today's Studio Briefing (over at the IMDB):

Conservative commentators have branded the upcoming movie Hoot, which features teenage environmentalists sabotaging a development project in order to protect the habitat of burrowing owls, "soft-core eco-terrorism." CNSNews.com, a unit of the conservative Media Research Center, noted Monday, "The teenagers in the PG-rated movie face no repercussions for the illegal acts and instead are portrayed as [heroes]." It further noted that the burrowing owl is not on the endangered or threatened species list and quoted Brian Mealey, president of the Institute of Wildlife Science, as saying that they have adapted to housing developments. "These owls immediately started moving into the front yards of people's homes. And that was the first step in the urbanization of these owls," Mealey said. Other conservative commentators scor[n]ed the Today show's Katie Couric and Matt Lauer for endorsing the film during an interview Monday with singer Jimmy Buffett who appears in the film. Lauer referred to the burrowing owl as an endangered species, while Couric called the film "a movie with a message" and said that she "can't wait to see" it.

And this comes in the wake of news today that more than 16,000 species of animals and plants threatened with global extinction:

According to the Swiss-based conservation group, known by its acronym IUCN, the number of species classified as being in serious danger of extinction rose from about 15,500 in its previous "Red List" report, published in 2004.

The list includes one in three amphibians, a quarter of the world's mammals and coniferous trees, and one in eight birds, according to a preview of the 2006 Red List.

[...]

People are the main reason for most species' decline, mainly through habitat destruction, according to IUCN.

Polar bears are threatened by global warming and melting ice caps, because they are conditioned for the icy environment and depend on Arctic ice floes for hunting seas. They are predicted to suffer a 30 percent population decline in the next 45 years.

The hippopotamus population in war-ravaged Congo, meanwhile, has plummeted by 95 percent, mainly because of unregulated hunting for meat and ivory in their teeth.