Leaked email showing that Fox was spinning the news related to climate change are no more surprising than the leaked memos showing they did the same with health care reform. This would explain why so many misled conservatives believe that global warming has stalled when actually this has been the warmest decade on record, 2009 was the second warmest year on record, and 2010 will fall in the top three, depending upon how much the recent cold weather brings down the annual average. It also explains why so many misled conservatives believe that there was something to the so-called “climate-gate” affair when the hacked emails failed to contain the material claimed by climate change deniers.
Media Matters reports:
In the midst of global climate change talks last December, a top Fox News official sent an email questioning the “veracity of climate change data” and ordering the network’s journalists to “refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question.”
The directive, sent by Fox News Washington managing editor Bill Sammon, was issued less than 15 minutes after Fox correspondent Wendell Goler accurately reported on-air that the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization announced that 2000-2009 was “on track to be the warmest [decade] on record.”
…Sammon’s orders for Fox journalists to cast doubt on climate science came amid the network’s relentless promotion of the fabricated “Climategate” scandal, which revolved around misrepresentations of emails sent to and from climate scientists at the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit.
At the time of Sammon’s directive, it was clear the “scandal” did not undermine the scientific basis for global warming and that the emails were being grossly distorted by conservative media and politicians. Scientists, independent fact-checkers, and several investigations have since confirmed that the CRU emails do not undermine the overwhelming scientific consensus that human activity is warming the planet.
Contrary to Sammon’s email, the increase in global temperatures over the last half-century is an established fact. As the National Climatic Data Center explains, the warming trend “is apparent in all of the independent methods of calculating global temperature change” and “is also confirmed by other independent observations.”
The full post has far more information on the misinformation presented on Fox. Watching Fox for news is a lot like watching pro wrestling. They’re both fixed.
Surely you’re not implying that the left leaning media hasn’t been spinning climate change stories for years now, right? This is what the media does, it spins stories. That’s why they are called stories in the first place, not truths.
Factual reports on scientific findings are hardly comparable to the manner in which Fox makes things up.
And an “inconvenient truth” is factual and not hysteric?? Being taught as fact scaring kids into believing the world is coming to an end because we drive suv’s. Even the UNs ipcc has “corrected” their “finding”…
Yes, “An Inconvenient Truth” is factual. As with any coverage of science by someone outside of science, it had some trivial mistakes, but it was a pretty accurate account of the science. Only those who choose to deny the science would see it as hysteric or erroneously describe it as you did. Did you actually watch it, or are you basing this on all the inaccurate accounts of the movie by the right wing and oil industry? Besides, this is a movie, not the press, as being discussed here.
The IPCC’s revisions have been minor and do not in any way change the conclusion that climate change is being caused by human action.
someone needs to look at the history of this planet….the earth survived an ice age….and you think it can’t survive some SUV’s…pitiful.
What is pitiful is the lack of knowledge by the right wing, and lack of concern with conserving our environment and society. This is hardly about “some SUV’s.” Yes, the earth will survive global warming but that is not the point. The point is preserving our people, civilization, and economy. Climate change is already costing money and presents a serious threat to our national security, and the situation can become far worse in the future. Conservatives promote conspiracy theories with a long list of imaginary dangers but totally ignore the real problems we face.