by Rob Lee
Fox News Stokes the Climate Change Denial Machine
[Via Little Green Footballs]
Fox News continues promoting anti-science rubbish to the rubes, with an article about Eight Botched Environmental Forecasts.
What do you notice about these “botched forecasts?” The most recent one they could find dates back to 2000, and all the others are much older. Here are the dates of these 8 “mistaken” predictions (all of which are among the constantly repeated talking points of climate change deniers):
2000
1990
1972
1989
1970
1970
1971
1970The fact that Fox News writer Maxim Lott couldn’t find anything more recent than ten years ago for this hackneyed list (and had to reach back 40 years for 5 of his examples) strongly suggests that climate scientists’ predictions are improving — which is, after all, how science is supposed to work. In fact, improving climate predictions is a major priority among scientists, and a subject of serious study. (Not that anyone at Fox News understands or cares about that.)
[More]
Little Green Footballs is one of the rightwing sites that did not fall off the cliff during the 2008 elections. While conservative, it presents a much more rational view of the world than many conservative sites, making it worth reading.I n particular, LGF does not like irrationality being displayed as legitimate discourse – in this case, Fox News and misinformation.
But then misinforming its audience seems to be what Fox News is good at. Even Democrats who watched Fox News were more misinformed than those who did not.
In the present case, it appears to be that Fox News has made the editorial decision to cast doubt at every opportunity on climate change. This is not fair and balanced reporting but simply yellow journalism.
Cherrypicking data is a hallmark of denialists. Here we have an article that uses 40 year old articles from popular reports to place doubt on current models. Not a single one of the eight forecasts comes from peer-reviewed reports. They are all from news reports, speeches or books.
I bet anyone could find all sorts of things that were wrongly predicted if they could go back 40 years and can take anything found anywhere in the press. But this is a standard procedure of a denialist, whether climate change, evolution, etc.
I like the idea that Climate Change Deniers are “Not Even Wrong”.
Not even wrong … refers to any statement, argument or explanation that is so at odds with reality that it is considered uncorrectable.
2 + 2 = 4 … is correct
2 + 2 = 5 … is wrong
2 + 2 = ‘§’ … did not understand the question
(2 + 2)/ zebra * Fugue = “global cooling” … is not even wrong
Climate change Deniers are often (usually?) “not even wrong“
If someone is wrong, they can be corrected. If they do not understand, they can be taught. True denialists are usually not even wrong and little can be done. It is fairly easy to see all 4 types in the comments to the original Fox News article.
Here, Fox is not only ‘not even wrong’ but is also trying to muddy the waters for its readers/viewers who are simply wrong or do not understand by appearing to be correct. That is the major way news agencies misinform – appearing to be correct when they are ‘not even wrong.’
xkcd is one of my favorite comics and this one succinctly espouses much of what I believe. Science is a tool that works and outlets such as Fox News wish to blunt that tool for their own reasons.
Anyone who works to blunt the weapons of science is actively trying to do us all harm.
A Man With A Ph.D. 