NBC News Declares Global Warming Debate Over

Following in the footsteps of Newsweek Magazine, and CNN's Miles O'Brien's recent claim that the debate is over, NBC News further degraded the global warming debate this evening. In a report on global warming "deniers", Ann Thompson declared the debate over anthropogenic global warming "over".

In a segment that was spun against skeptics from the start (including the requisite repeated referral to those who question the human impact on climate change by using the derogatory and historically-loaded "deniers" label), Patrick Michaels was given just a few seconds of air time to point out a primary tenet of skeptics: while the Earth is indeed likely warming, the human connection cannot be quantified. But from there, the segment took the usual left turn, immediately vilifying the "deniers".

Included were the usual claims of big oil funding with some ExxonMobil graphics splashed across the screen alongside smokestacks and steamy weather stock footage. To close the report, Ann Thompson put the global warming alarmists' favorite nail in the coffin of debate:

The debate is no longer over society's role in global warming, it is a matter of degrees.

Never mind that Newsweek's similar reporting on global warming deniers was recently blasted by the magazine's own editor. Never mind that some significant holes have recently been punched in the reliability of the data used to quantify global warming.

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Jake Gontesky routinely posts columns exploring the mainstream media coverage of the global warming debate and other topics in the world of atmospheric science. As a meteorologist, his viewpoints are frequently explored from a scientific standpoint rather than a purely political one. Read more at Notes in the Margin.