Here's what happened. In her Post editorial, David basically accused the NSTA of bowing to the corporations that help fund the organization. When the movie's producers offered up 50,000 free copies of the DVD so that teachers could show their students what's happening to our precious little planet, the NSTA turned them down.
According to David, the e-mail from NSTA turning the offer down also said that the organization didn't want to put "unnecessary risk upon the [NSTA] capital campaign, especially certain targeted supporters." Who might those be? You guessed it. Exxon Mobil and Shell.
After David's column ran, Keith Olbermann named NTSA president Linda Froschauer his "Worst Person in the World" for the day and the media storm began.
Well, the NSTA isn't going to go down without a fight. They've posted their official response here, basically calling David a liar, claiming they offered up the organization's mailing list and promised to announce the availability of the film in their publications, but the producers didn't want to pop for postage.
Hmm. Seems like they're going to need to come up with something better than that. If what the NSTA says is true, surely the two sides would have come up with a solution to get the important film in front of student's eyes. And I don't think I'm even cynical enough to believe David made the story up to garner more press for the film. Stay tuned.