Topic: Media Research Center
In a July 23 MRC Business & Media Institute article (and NewsBusters post), Jeff Poor expressed annoyance with the idea that ABC's Jonathan Karl would dare to make global warming denier Sen. James Inhofe -- who insists that the earth is in a cooling trend, despite the fact that the past decade has been the warmest on record -- do an interview outside during a Washington heat wave, "Karl's effort to use the current heat along the East Coast is something the left was up in arms about earlier this year when snow covered much of the country, when it was used to mock the theory of manmade global warming," Poor asserts.
Poor doesn't disclose, of course, that his BMI and his fellow MRC employees at NewsBusters were among the chief promulgators of the idea that record cold in various places last winter disproved global warming -- and that it was not done mockingly. For instance, a March 2009 BMI article by Julia Seymour declared that the fact that "Temperatures have plummeted to record or near-record lows in 32 states this winter" meant that "Reality is not cooperating with the network news’ global warming theme." A Jan. 4 article by Seymour complained: "The news media constantly misuse extreme weather examples to generate fear of global warming, but when record cold or record snow sets in journalists don’t mention the possibility of global cooling trends."
We did find some mocking a BMI: a Jan. 8 article by Matt Philbin bashing the established-beyond-a-doubt fact that weather is not climate, asserting that only "properly indoctrinated young folk" believe such a thing.
Over at BMI's sister organization NewsBusters, such assertions that cold weather disproved global warming, in the form of attacking anyone who said it didn't or otherwise violated conservative correctness on the issue (many of which were penned by Noel Sheppard), were endemic:
- Environment Writer: Ignore the Record Cold; Global Warming Is Happening
- G-8 Discuss Global Warming as South America Ends One of Coldest Mays in History
- Lib Radio Host: Record Snows and Cold Caused By Global Warming
- Record Cold Sweeps Nation After Release of IPCC’s Global Warming Report
- Media Ignore Near-Record Cold in Alaska
- Global Warming Update: Winter 2008 Coldest in Seven Years
- Rare Snows and Cold in Saudi Arabia Ignored by US Media
Why doesn't Sheppard write about all this record heat we're seeing these days? (We checked -- he hasn't.) Because it conflicts with his denier agenda? Or perhaps because he was too busy falsely smearing Shirley Sherrod as a racist?
