Its Time for the end of the world.
Its also ABC, CNN, CBS and Newsweek, all promoting a climate
disaster that would end the world as we know it raising sea
levels, swamping cities and killing people by the tens of thousands.
This latest catastrophe not to be confused with media hype on Y2K,
SARS, Avian Flu, obesity or the coming ice age is really nothing
new.
Lately, the major media have been promoting what they called a
tipping point or point of no return. But theyve already reached
it in their own climate coverage. Since the media gave up their
concern for global cooling in the 1970s, theyve attacked global
warming and the whole foundation of unbiased journalism at the same
time. They dont even make any pretense about it, with the April 3
issue of Time declaring The debate is over. Global warming is upon
us with a vengeance.
After all, journalists are always right. Even better, if the debate
is settled, why have opposing voices? They dont have to not that
they ever gave credence to them anyhow.
In one bit of misdirection, the March 23 CBS Evening News
pretended that network still gave two sides. Anchor Bob Schieffer
claimed: There is no end to the debate over global warming. Unlike
the Time statement, that claim was accurate. Unfortunately, reporter
Jerry Bowens story that followed only included one expert and she
was warning of yet another reported sign of climate change. Bowen
didnt offer a contrary view. At present, that day of reckoning may
be within just a hundred years, he said.
That day of reckoning for journalists needs to be right now. ABC
News and Time are at the forefront of this latest effort to make
news, not report it, with Time claiming: suddenly and unexpectedly,
the crisis is upon us.
The crisis is one involving the journalistic climate, not the
earths. No one has to be licensed or join any group to be a
journalist, nor should they have to do so. But the Society of
Professional Journalists (SPJ) does have some solid ethical
guidelines for reporters and editors that include a fair and
comprehensive account of events and issues.
Whens the last time Time, ABC and others gave us a full account of
this issue instead of open advocacy? The SPJ guidelines go on to
encourage the open exchange of views, even views they find
repugnant. Its obvious the media find opposing views repugnant,
when they bother to find them at all.
They should bother. Theyd find scientists who dont even dispute
that some warming has occurred in the last 100 years. What they do
dispute is the Day After Tomorrow scenarios that blame every
change in the worldwide weather on global warming. One recent ABC
report interviewed climatologist Pat Michaels, who dares challenge
the media mindset, and the story made him look like part of a
minority so small hed have trouble getting a poker game together.
SPJ also encourages reporters to distinguish between advocacy and
news reporting. Anyone who saw the latest Time effort knows it was
24 pages of advocacy with elaborate descriptions of an earth in
pain: that's not to say the planet can't behave like a living
thing, and these days, it's a living thing fighting a fever.
Hopefully Mother Earth has good health care coverage, because Time
has been telling us about this fever for 17 years. On Jan. 2,
1989, the Time cover story warned of threats to our Endangered
Earth, including of course global warming. Just five years ago, the
magazine showed the earth in a frying pan above the words Global
Warming.
All three cover stories were similar. The latest two have identical
headlines and even some of the same reporters. All three feature
global warming perennial Al Gore in some form or fashion.
For almost two decades, the magazine and many others in the media
have tried to overwhelm us with global warming propaganda. Just
recently, a climate change ad from the Ad Council was released on
the same day as the documentary The Great Warming. According to
Newsweek, two major books on the subject were due out in March,
and May is the scheduled release of An Inconvenient Truth, a film
and a book about Gores one-man crusade against warming.
All of that conveniently around the same moment in Time, ABC and
other media where they give us heat about global warming. If you
think thats all a coincidence, then you watch too much network TV
news.
Dan Gainor is a career journalist and The Boone Pickens Free Market
Fellow. He is also director of the Media Research Centers Business & Media Institute www.businessandmedia.org.
Media Declare Warming Debate Ended Again
March 29th, 2006 2:00 PM
Font Size