US media is biased on global warming 08 September 04

As a journalist myself, I get pretty sick of hearing people blame the media for all of society’s ills. But with global warming at least, it turns out to be true. In a meticulous analysis of over six hundred press articles, University of California academic Maxwell Boycoff proved beyond doubt that the journalistic obsession with ‘balance’ is giving too much time to sceptics and leaving the public ignorant about the degree of scientific consensus on global warming. At least 98% of scientists competent in the climate field agree that humans are causing the planet to heat up, and yet the US media persists in giving equal airtime to a cabal of largely unqualified and industry-funded global warming deniers. “We respect the need to represent multiple viewpoints, but when generally agreed-upon scientific findings are presented side-by-side with the viewpoints of a handful of skeptics, readers are poorly served,” says Boycoff. “In this case, it contributed to public confusion and opened the door to political manoeuvering.”