CNN Hypes ‘Global Warming’ as ‘Catastrophic Ice Storms’ Descend on Atlanta HQ
At least CNN is consistent. It will link any weather event to “global warming” or “climate change” even when its own headquarters is blasted by two major winter storms in a few weeks.
The network’s climate alarmists couldn’t contain their hysteria, even as two “historic” and “brutal” winter storms hit their Atlanta, Georgia HQ, within two weeks of each other.
In the midst of these “ice storms,” CNN continued to link wide-ranging weather events to “global warming,” such as “droughts,” “storms,” and “Superstorm Sandy.” They never stopped to question this incredibly broad belief that seemingly all weather events prove their hypothesis.
Over the past two weeks, two winter storms struck the CNN HQ. CNN called the first at the end of January, “crippling” and “rare.” On Jan. 29, “Early Start” anchor John Berman described it as a “crisis of ice” and reported on “the absolute chaos the storm is causing.”
Barely two weeks later, CNN heralded the new winter storm on Feb. 12’s “Early Start” as “a historic, catastrophic ice storm.” After the storm hit, CNN described how “sleet, ice and snow blanketed the area.”
Despite complaining for years about melting snow and steadily rising temperatures, climate alarmists are now claiming that these extreme winter storms are the result of global warming as well. CNN specifically promoted this narrative between the two major winter storms, claiming that global warming entails extreme temperatures, such as these winter storms and the drought in California.
CNN’s Athena Jones, on Feb. 12’s “Newsroom” linked the extreme storms to climate change. She covered a Senate committee meeting which discussed the financial cost of “all these brutal winter storms and frigid temperatures.” Jones cited the current storm, as well as “Superstorm Sandy, floods, droughts” as examples of “extreme weather events.”
Jones said “we expect there to be a lot of focus on climate change” during the Senate Committee, in a voiceover showing snow covered highways in North Carolina. Meanwhile, the chyron read “Senate looks at costs of being unprepared for extreme weather events, climate change.”
In addition to linking this current storm to climate change, CNN hyped the notion that extreme weather is caused by global warming on multiple occasions.
On Feb. 5’s “New Day” CNN anchor Chris Cuomo interviewed the climate alarmist Radley Horton. Cuomo said “You go outside; it makes you think that global warming is a hoax.” He asked “I understand that that’s naïve, but why is it naïve?”
Horton emphasized long-term trends, linking “more extreme warming, higher sea levels and more flooding,” as well as “cold air outbreaks and snowstorms” to global warming. Amazingly, he admitted that “the research is still out” on the connection between winter storms and global warming.
Following this exchange, Cuomo said “it’s not just about global warming. In one way, it’s about extremes. You’ve got big drought out there, big snow here.”
CNN’s Feb. 4 “Crossfire” co-host Van Jones also linked global warming with this extreme weather. He said “global warming deniers say look, there’s snow in the winter. Nothing to worry about. This while we’ve got the biggest state in the Union becoming a desert right in front of us.”
CNN’s website promoted this same argument during early February. On Feb. 5, Michael Pearson and Ed Payne again quoted Horton saying “climate change – particularly the way melting Arctic sea ice may be affecting jet stream patterns – could be increasing the frequency and severity of such wild weather rides.”
This alarmist narrative is not isolated to CNN. During the year following Hurricane Sandy, ABC, CBS and NBC connected Sandy and other extreme weather to global warming in 32 separate stories.
In addition, major print media outlets have alternated between promoting global warming and global cooling over the last century. The Media Research Center’s Business and Media Institute compiled a special report in 2010. This report, Fire & Ice, showed how outlets like The New York Times and Time Magazine have alternated between hyping different interpretations of climate change.
— Sean Long is Staff Writer at the Media Research Center. Follow Sean Long on Twitter.
