corporate media ball chain.jpg North America just witnessed the hottest month in the history of record keeping (about 117 years). The month of July shattered every previous record, but was certainly not a freak occurrence. So far, the first 7 months of this year have been the warmest on average
Continue readingTag: Media Matters
DeSmogBlog: House Republicans Attempt To Block Black Lung Protection Funding
black-lung.gif In what could possibly be a new low for one of the most anti-environment, pro-dirty energy industry Congresses in history, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are attempting to gut funding for measures that would reduce the occurrence of black lung in mine workers. The funding cut was
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Institute for Energy Research Launches “Save Oil Tax Breaks” Offensive
IER.jpg In late March, Senate Republicans torpedoed an effort by Democrats to repeal the $4 billion a year that is flowing to the oil companies in the form of subsidies. The Obama Administration had proposed ending the subsidies so that this unnecessary money for the oil industry could instead be
Continue readingRed Tory v.3.0.3: The Duality of Fox News on Gas Prices
THEN: Back in 2008, Fox News pundits and contributors were eager to deflect criticism of the Bush administration, pointing out the myriad of global market factors contributing to the steep rise in gas prices at the time. Conservative columnist Cal Thomas quite rightly stated that, “no president has the power
Continue readingThe amateur right’s new war on Media Matters
Media Matters, the very effective watchdog of right-wing media abuse, is a thorn in the side of the ethically-challenged big boys of the establishment media, especially Fox News. The right has been coming to the aide of Fox News for some time, accusing Media Matters of everything from being a
Continue readingMedia Matters: US media favoured Keystone XL proponents over opponents by wide margin
No surprise here. With the exceptions of USA Today and the Los Angeles Times, every news outlet included in this study quoted or hosted more people in favor of the pipeline than opposed. That’s just the US media. You can comfortably posit that the coverage in the largely conservative Canadian
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Media Matters Analysis Shows Keystone XL Proponents Dominated Media
corporate news.jpg A compelling new study from Media Matters for America reveals that proponents of the Keystone XL pipeline were granted far more time in the media than those who opposed it. As their study reveals, the majority of the coverage of the proposed pipeline regarded the creation of jobs,
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: To Infinity and Beyond: Media Matters Exposes Echo Chamber On Bogus Keystone XL Jobs Claims
Media Matters for America produced this spot-on video to highlight the manner in which the totally bogus Keystone XL jobs figures were echoed and inflated by Fox News and other media. Media Matters notes: Their job figures rely on industry-funded studies, and at times even grossly exaggerate those estimates. Watch as they struggle to get on
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Signs of Action On Climategate Hacker Investigation: DOJ and UK Police Probe Denier Bloggers
shutterstock_89773753.jpg Fantastic news for a change – the Guardian reports that the UK police are finally making some concerted attempts to identify the hacker behind the criminal invasion of the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit. The Guardian reports: On Wednesday, detectives from Norfolk Constabulary entered the home of Roger
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Can Fact Checking be Politically “Neutral,” When Facts Are Not Equally Distributed Across the Political Spectrum?
pinocchio.jpg Recently, I sat in on an off-the-record meeting about political fact-checking. I can’t report or quote from the event, but it spurred along some general thoughts that had already arisen in the context of writing The Republican Brain, which focuses a great deal on fact-checking—and thus, helped propel this post.
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: East Anglia SwiftHack Email Nontroversy Returns: What You Need To Know
The desparate attempt by climate change deniers to sully climate scientists returns today with the release of 5,000 emails stolen back in 2009 during the original "Climategate" hacking of the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit email servers. Other than a great attempt at ruining another Thanksgiving holiday for American
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Climate Change Spin A Growing Problem For Fox News
fox global warming.jpg When it comes to climate change denial, a new study shows that the folks at Fox News are leading the pack. Through politically-charged news segments and commentary, Fox News personalities are helping spread misinformation about climate change while convincing their viewers that scientists are torn on the
Continue reading