The U.S. television news media has tilted its global warming coverage toward the environmental activist side of the issue, the Media Research Center claims.
The Alexandria, Va., organization said last week that most climate scientists are unconvinced that human actions are contributing to a catastrophic warming of the planet.
"Such views, however, do not make it into newscasts. Instead, as with so many other issues, global warming is usually portrayed in a science-and-activists vs. industry paradigm," it said.
The center reviewed all the stories about global warming on the three major U.S. network evening news shows, plus CNN, from January 1993 through October 1997.
It said, "Global warming has become a bigger story lately, with more stories so far in 1997 (26) than in all the other years combined (22).
It said, of the 48 stories during the study period, most (39) simply assumed that science supports warming theories. Only seven stories mentioned that many scientists are skeptical of global warming. Of those seven, only two brought up the actual arguments of skeptical climate scientists.
Two stories were about scientific efforts to measure the earth's warming and did not mention the scientific debate.
The center said, "Not only did the networks report unquestioningly that humans were warming the planet, but they were certain that such warming would lead to disaster.
"Only two of the 48 global warming stories pointed out that some scientists believe warming would be a boon to human health and well-being. The other stories assumed that global warming would be bad."
In the 48 stories during the study period, there were 60 soundbites from those who thought global warming was a problem and favored drastic policy solutions.
Ten soundbites came from the other side, with only two of those coming from scientists. Fifteen soundbites came from neutral sources.
"Reporters often used soundbites to frame the debate as being between science and environmental activists on one side and industry on the other."
In summary, the center said, "In order for their stories to be balanced, reporters must present the arguments of the many climate scientists who are skeptical of claims that humans are disastrously warming the planet. So far, such scientists have rarely been heard from on the evening news."
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