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Former Vice President Al Gore‘s crusade to stop man-made climate change hit the road last week as Gore attended the Aspen Institute’s “Networks and Citizenship” media panel to discuss those who do not believe in his cause. In a rage-fueled rant against his detractors, Gore told the audience that much of the anti-global warming rhetoric came from a small group of people “washing back at you the same crap over and over and over again” who had made it unacceptable “to use the goddamn word ‘climate.’”

Ron Schiller, the NPR executive who resigned in the wake of this week’s undercover video scandal, has announced that he’s backing out of his new job–which he accepted ahead of the controversy–as director of the Harman-Eisner Artist-in-Residence Program at the Aspen Insitute.

Poynter’s Jim Romenesko reports Aspen Institute communications director Jim Spiegelman sent an e-mail saying “Ron Schiller has informed us that, in light of the controversy surrounding his recent statements, he does not feel that it’s in the best interests of the Aspen Institute for him to come work here.”

Right now the Aspen Institute is holding a forum called Of the Press: Models for Preserving American Journalism, featuring media thinkers like NPR President Vivian Schiller, Washington Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli, Google VP of Search and User Experience (and Very Long Titls) Marissa Mayer, new media pan-guru Jeff Jarvis, MediaNews CEO Dean Singleton, former [...]

A column in the Washington Post this Sunday is the latest in Dan Rather‘s campaign to get President Obama to convene “White House commission on public media” — an important step towards legitimizing the debate about the future of the news. But do we really need more government in our news?