MediaWatch: February 1996
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: February 1996
- A Social Problem Blamed on Reaganomics Fades Away in Clinton-Era Media Coverage
- NewsBites: Tricky Dick's Tax Break
- CBS Reporter Bernard Goldberg Charges Colleague
- Networks Scared of Flat Tax
- Global Warming Shtick Returns The Heat Is Off
- Transportation's Travel Bill
- Knowledgeable Limbaugh Dittoheads
- Janet Cooke Award: The Evangelical Right Wing That Wasn't
Global Warming Shtick Returns The Heat Is Off
Snow in Arizona, ice in Mississippi, and record low temperatures in between? It must be global warming. So said Newsweek's January 22 cover story: "The Hot Zone: Blizzards, Floods, & Hurricanes: Blame Global Warming."
Senior Writer Sharon Begley promoted Goddard Institute scientist James Hansen (an early and influential exponent of global warming). The story included a graph claiming, "The average surface temperature of the earth has risen more than 1.5 degrees in the last 135 years."
Begley noted how some scientists are skeptical, but didn't detail their evidence. Instead, she concluded by endorsing Hansen's theory of immenent climate change, writing "to many people trudging along streets lined with urban Himalayas last week, it already has." Reporter Bob Dotson fingered the same suspect to explain the weather on the February 2 Dateline NBC: "Despite the cold, last year was the hottest on record. Mix those two extremes, says Dr. Michael Oppenheimer, and stir with global warming." Dotson failed to tell viewers that Oppeheimer is a long-time promoter of warming scenarios for the liberal Environmental Defense Fund.
Both got their data from the University of East Anglia, whose climate researchers anointed 1995 the warmest year ever after measuring the Earth's surface temperature for the first 11 months of data, making an "educated guess" about December.
Oops.
Reporter Kathy Sawyer in the January 26 Washington Post pointed out "Temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere plummeted in December by almost 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit," a drop "unprecedented in the 17-year satellite record." She cited figures from NOAA, whose satellite data showed that out of 17 years included in their research, "1995 was only about the eighth-warmest year." Ronald Bailey, producer of Ben Wattenberg's Think Tank on PBS wrote in the February 5 Weekly Standard that "One climate scientist at NASA speculated that the East Anglia group was afraid that if they waited, December temperatures might plummet and they'd lose their opportunity for a scary headline." Bailey suggested a more accurate headline: "'95 Eighth-Warmest Year on Record."
