Memo Reveals Biased Climate Media Coverage

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has said in a statement that it is not surprised that Fox News is biased in their coverage on climate change. UCS was commenting on a release by Media Matters which released an email from Fox News whereby Washington Managing Editor Bill Sammon urged staff to highlight criticisms of climate science when they have to mention that the Earth is warming.

UCS said that is tracks climate misinformation on Fox News and other media outlets and the leaked memo is revealing. “NewsCorp, which owns Fox News, has a stated policy to ‘engage our audiences and enable them to find ways to reduce carbon emissions in their own lives.’ Sammon’s email, which urges reporters to misinform their audiences about climate change, is an apparent violation of that policy”, UCS said.

The organization says it has asked Fox News to improve what its “poor coverage” of climate science. More than 35,000 letters have been submitted by UCS scientists to Rupert Murdoch, owner of NewsCorp, which Fox News is part of. The letters contain requests urging Murdoch to stop allowing false claims about climate science on the channel and the newspapers he owns.

The letters are part of a campaign called Got Science?, designed to debunk misinformation about climate change by governments, corporations and the news media. UCS says neither NewsCorp or Murdoch have responded.