A week after Newsweek printed a
cover story about climate change deniers and their alleged financial links to big oil, they printed an other story explaining how they were way out of line in doing so. I admire the editors for having the sand to print a dissenting point of view in their own magazine (albeit without the original title, "Newsweek's Global Warming Crusade"), but Newsweek is a microcosm of the way global warming is portrayed throughout the mainstream media: oftentimes honest reporting is less important than cashing in on public fears.
Quote:
Greenhouse Simplicities
Robert Samuelson
August 15, 2007
We in the news business often enlist in moral crusades. Global warming is among the latest. Unfortunately, self-righteous indignation can undermine good journalism. A recent Newsweek cover story on global warming is a sobering reminder. It's an object lesson of how viewing the world as "good guys vs. bad guys" can lead to a vast oversimplification of a messy story. Global warming has clearly occurred; the hard question is what to do about it.
If you missed Newsweek's story, here's the gist. A "well-coordinated, well-funded campaign by contrarian scientists, free-market think tanks and industry has created a paralyzing fog of doubt around climate change." This "denial machine" has obstructed action against global warming and is still "running at full throttle." The story's thrust: Discredit the "denial machine," and the country can start the serious business of fighting global warming. The story was a wonderful read, marred only by its being fundamentally misleading.
Full article
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The one thing undermining the supposed conspiracy by oil companies to spread FUD about global warming is that the mainstream media is far louder, shriller and more influential than any think tank or industry lobbyist ever could be. That a news magazine would go after them with such zeal clearly indicates how much the global warming alarmists want to put an end to the debate. This makes the article's closing all the more pointed: "As we debate it, journalists should resist the temptation to portray global warming as a morality tale—as NEWSWEEK did—in which anyone who questions its gravity or proposed solutions may be ridiculed as a fool, a crank or an industry stooge. Dissent is, or should be, the lifeblood of a free society." Amen.