The Wall Street Journal’s opinion page has always been Biased on climate change. It’s straight news reporting, however, has been only somewhat biased on the issue, exhibiting more negative framing than other outlets, but not propagating myths outright like their opinion section.
Now the Journal’s news team has apparently decided to balance out the partisan opinion section by publishing an entire section dedicated solely on energy, and amazingly there’s nothing for us to complain about among the 15 stories. They even published it in the physical paper! And the lead story is about how the US will likely implement a price on carbon! While there was also a balancing story explaining why that’s actually unlikely, that story was on the second page in a box surrounded by the larger story about how the price on carbon is probably going to happen. Importantly, the story about why a carbon price is unlikely was remarkably realistic, and had nothing to do with denial.
Similarly balanced (real, actual balance!) were two stories about Japan’s Post-Fukushima energy issues, one focusing on local efforts to expand renewables and the other a broader story about the hurdles clean energy, like solar, still faces in the land of the rising sun.
There were stories about a World Bank initiative to tackle methane, a DoE reality TV show that pits companies against each other on energy efficiency, demand response, corporate use of batteries, net-zero-energy use building, SEC disclosure of potentially stranded assets, the struggle of utilities to adapt to clean energy and a major Moroccan solar farm.
Only three other pieces were even remotely negative, and even then they’re still solid. The one about the sleep-related problems of blue-hued LED streetlights was straightforward in presenting the solution: switch to yellow-hued LED streetlights. Another about Big Oil going into the natural gas business disregarded the cheerleading tone that defines the Journal’s opinion page coverage of the issue. And the story about venture capitalists’ struggles with clean energy didn’t even mention the opinion page-favorite examples of (supposedly) crony capitalism, Solyndra and Tesla.
Speaking of the Journal’s opinion page, remember back in June when there was a “Price Carbon” ad campaign targeting the Wall Street Journal’s opinion pages? And there was that report about how the editorial board never acknowledged the link between fossil fuels and climate change in twenty years of writing on the subject?
We’d like to think that the reporting side of the paper saw these criticisms of the opinion pages and decided that some balance was in order. But just a story or two wouldn’t be enough. They’d need a dozen of them, in its own stand out section, with none of the false balance that has otherwise plagued the media.
And lastly, they made an interactive quiz, so people can test their knowledge of energy regulations. Again, we’d like to think that this was created with the Editorial Board in mind, so the reporters could test just how much the opinion writers really know about the subject!
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