Inhofe's media bias claim innacurate, bordering outright falsehood

picture-8-1346574554.jpg
on

In his climate-change ain’t happening State of the Union speech of Sept. 25th, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) makes the claim that climate change โ€œskepticโ€ scientists do not get a fair share of media coverage.

Inhofe states:

โ€œScientists like MIT‘s Richard Lindzen, former Colarado State Climatologist Roger Pielke, the University of Alabama’s Roy Spencer, and John Christy, Virginia State Climatologist Patrick Michaels, Colorado State University’s William Grey, atmospehric physicist Fred Singer, Willie Soon, Oregon State Climatologist George Taylor [and] astrophysicist Sallie Baliuna, just to name a few. But you never hear of them.The media never talks about these well-established scientists.โ€

We won’t get into the fact in this post that many of the โ€œwell establishedโ€ scientists Inhofe rattles off are โ€œwell establishedโ€ in the oil and coal industry.

Instead, we tested Inhofe’s claim that the scientists he lists are neverย  talked about in the media. Unfortunately, Inhofe’s claim of media bias is way off the mark.

A quick infomart media search of majorย  North American newspaper shows over 350 mentions of Fred Singer, Willie Soon, Sallie Baliunas, William Grey, Roger Pielke, Richard Linzen and Patrick Michaels. In other words, the most notorious climate change โ€œskepticsโ€ in the US have been mentioned, on average, once every 5 days in North American major print outlets alone.

ย 

picture-8-1346574554.jpg
Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a โ€œGreen Heroโ€ by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the โ€œTop 50 Tweetersโ€ on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevinโ€™s research into the โ€œclimate denial industryโ€ and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Kochโ€™s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea partyย networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a โ€œCertified Expertโ€ on theย political and community organizing platformย NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the worldโ€™s best e-Content and innovative ICTย applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.

Related Posts

on

The tech billionaireโ€™s Grok AI tool has been used to produce millions of explicit images.

The tech billionaireโ€™s Grok AI tool has been used to produce millions of explicit images.
on

Seemingly unlikely alliances are springing up in Canada and the U.S. to prevent rural communities from becoming a โ€˜toxic CO2 dumping groundโ€™.

Seemingly unlikely alliances are springing up in Canada and the U.S. to prevent rural communities from becoming a โ€˜toxic CO2 dumping groundโ€™.
on

New controversy adds to scrutiny of party's finances.

New controversy adds to scrutiny of party's finances.
Analysis
on

The prime minister should consider the potential outcomes of siding with his Bay Street buddies and oil industry bigwigs over climate-beleaguered Canadians.

The prime minister should consider the potential outcomes of siding with his Bay Street buddies and oil industry bigwigs over climate-beleaguered Canadians.