A study released on Monday by the Union of Concerned Scientists (PDF) shows that, from February through July of this year, Faux News misled a full 93 percent on climate change issues while 81 percent of Wall Street Journal articles on the same issue were likewise misleading.
Of course, Rupert Murdoch owns both news outlets.
While it shouldn't surprise anyone that Faux News misleads on climate change (hell, I'd estimate it's 93 percent on EVERYTHING), it's tragic that those hyper-partisan dimwits are using bunk science and the opinions of Big Oil shills to dismiss the most important issue before us. According to a study released earlier today by DARA, there will be, "6 million annual deaths and 3.2% of GDP lost from climate change," by the year 2030 -- over 100 million deaths by then.
That's some serious shit, far too major to be the punchline of jokes made by the vacuous bubble heads at Faux News.
(More below the squiggle)
According to Monday's UCS report, Faux News was guilty of:
Disparaging and mocking climate science was relatively common in this sample, including suggestions that climate change is a hoax. But fewer instances of cherry-picking were found. In addition, 10 citations were included in which a panel member expressed acceptance of climate science findings but was drowned out by hosts or other panel members who responded with multiple misleading claims.
Yet, deniers of climate change continue to bloviate unchecked on Faux News (and, unfortunately,
on more reliable news sources) despite evidence that
the climate just keeps getting hotter with
the NOAA having declared 2012 the hottest year on record way back in March, regardless of the rest of the weather recorded this year.
Unfortunately, Faux News is hardly the only guilty party here. According to a Media Matters report from yesterday, "TV News Covered Paul Ryan's Workout Over Three Times More Than Arctic Sea Ice Loss. Since June, the major TV news outlets have devoted seven full segments to Paul Ryan's physical fitness and P90X workout routine, and only one to Arctic sea ice loss. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC have each covered Paul Ryan's workout routine as much or more than Arctic sea ice loss. In total, TV outlets have discussed Ryan's fitness 66 times -- more than three times as much as Arctic sea ice."
You'd think that, in a sane world, the record loss of Arctic sea ice and an estimated loss of 6 million lives per year due to climate change would trump Ryan's work out. It makes one wonder if climate change has, among so many other things, made Americans more stupid.
What's incredibly sad is that this issue, by far the most important of any facing our country and the rest of the world (with its impact on economics, employment, national security, defense, food, etc.) has been pretty much ignored by both Romney and Obama. In fact a web site (ClimateSilence.org) went up yesterday in response to the relative silence both candidates have shown regarding climate change.
Yes, I trust President Obama much, much more on issues of climate change than Romney -- Mitt's policy is to merely placate his Big Oil donors with continued subsidies and promises to rape the land with more drilling.
In the end, however, it's the media that is firmly to blame for the fact that so many voters are not just unconcerned with climate change but sadly misinformed.
Cross posted on The Firebird Suite where I blog about parenting, politics and a miserable life in Phoenix.