By Paul Bedard
It’s not easy being Fox News in today’s highly politicized media environment. When it says it’s “fair and balanced,” the mainstream media sneer disbelief. When the cable news ratings leader reveals figures proving its coverage is balanced on a specific hot-button issue, it gets slapped for pandering to conservative dogma.
That’s a conclusion one might reach from a first-of-its-kind study in the authoritative International Journal of Press/Politics of how Fox, CNN, and MSNBC cover the issue of global warming. The bottom line: Being balanced and providing supportive and critical views of global warming is actually biased because it gives critics a louder voice. Worse: Fox covers global warming about twice as much as CNN and MSNBC combined, meaning those critics get much more airtime, another sign of bias.
“Although Fox discussed climate change most often, the tone of its coverage was disproportionately dismissive,” says the study by four professors, two from George Mason University, the others from Yale and American University. They wrote, “Fox broadcasts were more likely to include statements that challenged the scientific agreement on climate change, undermined the reality of climate change, and questioned its human causes.”
The new study looked at global warming stories on the three networks in 2007-08, the peak of coverage of the issue. Of 269 stories, 182 were on Fox, 66 on CNN, and 21 on MSNBC. About 60 percent of the Fox stories had a “dismissive” tone, while less than 20 percent were “accepting” of global warming. Over 70 percent of those on CNN and MSNBC accepted the global warming argument, which the study authors also endorse. There were no “dismissive” stories on MSNBC, and just 7 percent on CNN, a proper balance, the study suggests.
The authors also looked at the opinions of guests. Here Fox again out-balanced the competition. Of Fox’s 149 guests, 59 believed in global warming, 69 didn’t, with the rest someplace in the middle. Of CNN’s 53 story guests, 41 were “climate change believers” and nine were “doubters.” On MSNBC, 11 of 20 guests were believers.
The study acknowledges that Fox was the most balanced from the numbers perspective, but the network still gets an F. The reason, it says, is because viewers are influenced by what they see, and seeing more critics of global warming makes more viewers critics. “The more often people watched Fox News, the less accepting they were of global warming. Conversely, frequent CNN and MSNBC viewing was associated with greater acceptance of global warming,” the study concludes.
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If Fox “News” told their viewers the earth was flat, they would believe it.
I remember a few years ago during the winter Olympics in Vancouver, there was a bad snow storm in NYC and Sean Hannity was on Fox “News” blasting anyone who said there was global warming becuase it was snowing in NY. He went on a tirade about how global warming didn’t exist. Of course he made no mention that it was about 60 degrees in Vancouver at the time and the Olympic committe was afraid the warm weather would disrupt the Skiing competitition.
Actually Mary, if you follow the article, Fox would have presented people to debate both sides of the issue of whether the earth was flat, or not. According to this study, only MSNBC would push the earth is flat idea with no dissenting opinions, whatsoever.
it really is amazing how retarded the liberals in this country are. they have no platform or program. it is just bitching about. having no opinion but defiance of any opinion is not an opinion. fox news is balanced. why? because they are a business. the left or however one could define it. has a huge problem. they have no message but bitching.
Mary, by now you should know there’s little clear evidence that the earth’s climate is warming, only that it is and has been volatile. And there’s no good evidence at all for AGW. But we do have ample evidence of socialist driven scientific fraud, and news media irresponsibility in mis-reporting these facts. You don’t have to blame Fox News for the fact that knowledge of this is becoming increasingly widespread. The truth has many other ways of getting out despite your favored news outlets’ attempts to cover it up.
I hope visualizing your political opponents as being as stupid as you indicate in your comment makes you feel better about being so wrong about this issue. Are you angry about being lied to? That I can understand. We should all be angry about that, and about the hijacking of the environmental movement to this nonsense which damages credibility and pulls focus from real threats. We’re still poisoning our air, ground, and water with dangerous toxins. Though CO2 isn’t one of them, other petroleum combustion products are, among many other things. The US has made some good progress due to the environmental movement. It’s a wicked shame that it has become infected with this crap, and we’ll all suffer for it. Thanks again, socialism. Your benefit to humanity is so clearly reflected in your record of accomplishments.
High, exactly. The entire environmental movement has been hijacked by anthropogenic global warmists. It is sad because as people continue to wake up to the fraud, they will be much less likely to trust any sort of environmental cause in the future. There are still countless ways we could improve our environment. I can’t believe the billions that are being wasted trying to prevent us from putting a gas in the air that we both exhale with every breath and that plants need to grow. The amount of environmental damage being done to many parts of the world is directly proportional to the poverty level. If we could get African tribes to use propane instead of wood, we’d go a long way in stopping the desertification of Africa. Instead of figuring out how to bring these tribes into the 21st Century so that they can continue their lifestyle without burning up their surroundings, we are stuck with a gov’t that gives billions to losing companies (Solyndra, Fisker, etc). It is truly maddening. If nothing else, it is a great example of how central planning does not work.
ROTFLMAO!
yeah, exactly ! the earth is flat and the center of the universe ..
and we are the only humans in the universe. oh, they haven’t proven that yet? 😉
This is how Fox News would have covered history LOL
http://www.upcheer.com/images/foxnews/
Slavery is essential for a healthy agrarian economy. Mr. Lincoln seems to forget that. He should remember where the cloth for his suits come from, Cotton from the properous south.
Imagine if you were presented both sides of an issue and were allowed to come to your own conclusions?