The chutzpah of the "main stream" media is a fearsome thing to behold. It is head shaking stuff. On no other topic has media bias been more evident in general than over the climate change issue. For the past eight years or so the "main stream media" have championed the imminent abolition-of-life-as-we-know-it cause of anthropogenic global warming. We get it.
We understand that there is undoubtedly a hard-core of convinced global warming folk, and more than a few ardent environmentalists within such organizations. We also know that catastrophes, real or rumoured, are good for the news business. Never let a good crisis go to waste--and all of that. Moreover, we are realistic enough to expect that any cause calling for more rules, regulations, government intrusions, actions, and taxes will be likely to become a cause-celebre to those news organisations whose self-understood raison d'etre is to act as the fourth arm of government. Throw in a dose of socialist redistribution, of guilt and pity into the mixing bowl of zeal and angst, and you are sure to get strong editorial and reporting bias in favour of The Cause.
None of this is surprising; none of it particularly alarming. It is just the way things are. What is completely unacceptable, however, is that such media would attempt to cloak their biases, pre-commitments, and subjectivities as somehow objective or impartial. One only becomes truly objective when one is self-aware of one's pre-commitments, and discloses them to all and sundry, including self. This even more the case for an institution like a media company. The "main stream media" have fallen into the narcissistic, self-absorbed trap of thinking that because they are indeed "main stream" and because "everyone" allegedly believes something it must be objectively true, and to propound what everyone believes is to be truly objective. In other words, the "main stream media", almost without exception, is guilty of reasoning in a viciously circular fashion (something is widely believed because it is objectively true; our reflecting what most people believe makes us objective).
Media Matters, an organisation devoted to the well-being and success of the main steam media in the United States, has declared Fox News to be its nemesis and deadly enemy. Now this is because Fox usually adopts an editorial stance and reporting policy pretty much opposed to the world view espoused by Media Matters and the "main stream media" whose interests it exists to serve. Media Matters spends a good deal of time attacking the objectivity and credibility of Fox News--which is to say they believe that anyone who does not agree with Media Matters's particular and peculiar world view is, by definition, lacking in objectivity, is biased, and non-credible. Here is where the chutzpah begins to ooze to the surface, displaying its oleaginous texture and rancid smell.
The Guardian, an ideological broadsheet, and perfervid purveyor of the global warming cause, has highlighted the bias of Fox News over the their global warming coverage.
Fox News chief enforced climate change scepticism – leaked email
Email obtained by Media Matters reveals reporters were under orders to cast doubt on any mention of climate change
According to an email obtained by Media Matters, Bill Sammon ordered Fox News staff to cast doubt on climate change. Photograph: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images Journalists at Fox News were under orders to cast doubt on any on-air mention of climate change, a leaked email obtained by a media monitoring group revealed today. According to the email, obtained by Media Matters, Fox News's Washington bureau chief, Bill Sammon, imposed an order to make time for climate sceptics within 15 minutes of the airing of a story about a scientific report showing that 2000-2009 was on track to be the hottest decade on record. Media Matters said the bureau chief's response to the report exhibited a pattern of bias by Fox News in its coverage of climate change. It also noted the timing of the directive. The email went out on 8 December last year, when the leaders of nearly 200 countries met in Copenhagen to try to reach a deal on climate change. The email reads: "We should refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question." It goes on to say: "It is not our place as journalists to assert such notions as facts, especially as this debate intensifies." Media Matters, which earlier this week released an email from Sammon to staff on framing coverage of the health care debate, said the directive on climate change reporting exposed the network's bias. In addition to the email, it said Fox had tried to delegitimise the work of climate scientists in its coverage of the hacked emails from the University of East Anglia. The network had displayed a pattern of trying to skew coverage in favour of the fringe minority which doubts the existence of climate change, Media Matters said.
Oh dear, Ms Goldenberg did you stop to read what you have just written. Fox News, of course, has this "fair and balanced" thing. Now of course that also is stretching credulity, and must be taken with a big dose of salt. But surely they could argue in good faith that the coverage of sceptical counter-positions to the global warming PR machine is responsible journalism. Surely they could argue their objectivity is on display because they refuse to take sides, but cite from both sides of the debate.
Ah, no. In the Alice-In-Wonderland view of the "main stream media" this constitutes bias. Objectivity and fair-mindedness can exist only when other news media agree with "us"--for we are espousing the truly objective position--and devote themselves to cheerleading the global warming cause.
To highlight the chutzpah of Media Matters and The Guardian, let us recast the leaked Fox News memo to make it truly objective in the eyes of these worthies:
News's Washington bureau chief, Bill Sammon, imposed an order to refuse time for climate sceptics within 15 minutes of the airing of a story about a scientific report showing that 2000-2009 was on track to be the hottest decade on record. . . .
The email went out on 8 December last year, when the leaders of nearly 200 countries met in Copenhagen to try to reach a deal on climate change. The email reads: "We should refrain from casting any doubt that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period by inadvertently mentioning that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question."
It goes on to say: "It is our place as journalists to assert such notions as facts, especially as this debate intensifies." Media Matters, which earlier this week released an email from Sammon to staff on framing coverage of the health care debate, said the directive on climate change reporting exposed the network's true objectivity.
In addition to the email, it said Fox had tried to legitimise the work of climate scientists in its coverage of the hacked emails from the University of East Anglia. The network had displayed a pattern of deliberately attempting to skew coverage to undermine the credibility of the fringe minority which doubts the existence of climate change, Media Matters said.
Ah, yes. Objectivity according to Media Matters and The Guardian. Chutzpah indeed.
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