You Read It Here First: George Will Cites CNN on Global Warming Causing Asteroids
George Will marveled in his column late last week over how “a CNN anchor wondered if an asteroid that passed by Earth on Feb. 15 was ‘an effect of, perhaps, global warming.’” That quote, however, isn’t new to you if you’ve been reading BiasAlerts or attended the MRC’s 2013 “DisHonors Awards” where that was a runner-up in the “Dan Rather Memorial Award for the Stupidest Analysis.”
My February BiasAlert post, “Parody or Does She Believe It? CNN Anchor Blames Asteroid on Global Warming,” relayed:
CNN anchor Deb Feyerick asked Saturday afternoon if an approaching asteroid, which will pass by Earth on February 15, “is an example of, perhaps, global warming?”
Moments earlier, before an ad break, she segued from the Northeast blizzard to a segment with Bill Nye “the science guy,” by pointing to global warming: “Every time we see a storm like this lately, the first question to pop into a lot of people’s minds is whether or not global warming is to blame? I’ll talk to Bill Nye, ‘the science guy,’ about devastating storms and climate change.”
She never got to that question in the subsequent interview at about 3:25 PM EST during CNN Newsroom, instead transitioning from a snowfall update: “Talk about something else that’s falling from the sky and that is an asteroid. What’s coming our way? Is this an effect of, perhaps, of global warming or is this just some meteoric occasion?”
Will’s column, which the November 28 printed Washington Post titled, “Pardon These Turkeys,” began:
We are tomorrow’s past, so this Thanksgiving give thanks for 2013, a year the future might study more for amusement than for edification. HealthCare.gov performed the public service of defeating Barack Obama’s ascription of every disagreeable effect to one of two causes — George W. Bush or global warming. Concerning the latter, a CNN anchor wondered if an asteroid that passed by Earth on Feb. 15 was “an effect of, perhaps, global warming.”
— Brent Baker is the Steven P.J. Wood Senior Fellow and Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Follow Brent Baker on Twitter.
