Fox News still goes by the tagline “Fair and Balanced,” which company uses to suggest that somehow Fox is showing viewers the side of the story the rest of the mainstream media is (probably maliciously) hiding. But when it comes to climate change, Fox is comically off base. A new report (PDF) by the Union of Concerned Scientists shows that Fox is “overwhelmingly misleading” when it comes to climate change. In a six-month review of Fox’s statements about climate change, a whopping 93 percent were misleading, either by passing off scientific consensus as incorrect or presenting falsities.Media Matters, in a well-linked post, shared this graph that sums it all up:But Fox News isn’t alone. Also in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp stable is the Wall Street Journal, whose long war on science has been noted many times. The _Journal_’s opinion page is awash with bad climate science, with 81 percent of climate change mentions being inaccurate. Even better, Scientific American’s Steve Mirsky explained in a podcast that “[O]f the accurate ones, these were all letters to the editor that were submitted in response to misrepresentations in editorials or other letters.”What it all boils down to is that viewers and readers of two of News Corp’s flagships are receiving a heinous amount of inexcusably misleading reporting. While science reporting is never easy and often inaccurate, blatantly disregarding good research in order to support and internal agenda, and calling it news, is inexcusable. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to stop.Follow Derek Mead on Twitter: @derektmead.
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