Major news outlets abandoned false-equivalence coverage of climate change
Evidence
As of July 2014, the BBC decided to stop giving equal airtime to climate change deniers. The Huffington Post made the same decision in April 2012, when its founder Arianna Huffington said: … In all our stories, especially matters of controversy, we strive to consider the strongest arguments we can find on all sides, seeking to deliver both nuance and clarity. Our goal is not to please those whom we report on or to produce stories that create the appearance of balance, but to seek the truth. … If the balance of evidence in a matter of controversy weighs heavily on one side, we acknowledge it in our reports. — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 317
Categorization
- SHARE: Concrete dates and named outlets for the shift against climate false balance — a usable citation when arguing about newsroom norms toward denialists.
- XREF: connects to: News outlets demanded false balance on climate because backers and advertisers bought it — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 162; Fossil fuel funding manufactured doubt that made climate change a partisan media issue — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 160; Evenhanded journalism can itself bias public scientific belief — Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, The Misinformation Age: How False…, 61 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Journalistic both-sides coverage can be weaponized to manufacture public ignorance
#contradicts(0.90) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 628 - Evenhanded journalism can itself bias public scientific belief
#contradicts(0.85) — Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, The Misinformation Age, 61 - News outlets demanded false balance on climate because backers and advertisers bought it
#contradicts(0.80) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 162 - Reporting routines themselves, not political views, produced pro-climate-denial coverage.
#contradicts(0.78) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 169 - Fossil fuel funding manufactured doubt that made climate change a partisan media issue
#contradicts(0.75) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 160