Notice Anything Sneaky About Fox News' Coverage of Climate Change?

Impact

They’re not fooling anyone: we know that Fox News isn’t really "fair and balanced" in its coverage. But that holds particularly true for certain issues, like global warming and climate change. And now Media Matters has run the numbers to figure out just how imbalanced Fox News is in its coverage. 

Media matters looked at Fox News’ "coverage of cold weather from January 2 to January 8" and found that it "brought up climate change nine times, casting doubt on it every single time." According to Fox News, the deep cold brought by the polar vortex was evidence enough to disprove the idea of global warming. "Global warming?" they said. "But it’s so cold!"

So Media Matters checked out Fox News coverage of a heat wave in America from 2011. And what did they found? Naturally, Fox News didn’t mention global warming once. When things get hot, mum’s the word. 

Source: Media Matters

As we all know, of course, freezing cold temperatures aren’t legitimate evidence against climate change or global warming. But don’t tell that to Fox News. Who exactly are Fox News’ global warming skeptics? Because according to a recent study, there’s nearly a unanimous consensus in academic journals that global warming is man-made. 

How did other cable networks cover the cold snap? Fox News led the way with climate change dismissal, while MSNBC went the opposite way. And there’s CNN of course, being equal as always.

Source: Media Matters

On broadcast news, Media matters found that climate change coverage was up overall in 2013 compared to the past three years, though still down considerably from 2009.

Source: Media Matters

Unfortunately though, only 14% of that climate change coverage was given to scientists – and before this year, "Sunday show hosts did not interview a single scientist about climate change when discussing the issue on their shows." Just great, let’s talk about science without talking to actual scientists. Why waste time on people who know what they’re talking about?

 

Source: Media Matters

So TV coverage of climate change and global warming is pretty lousy no matter what you watch. But Fox News doesn’t even try to be "fair and balanced." And let’s be honest – were you really expecting them to?