The Counterbalance of Climate News:

In a Washington Post op-ed, David Ignatius observed:
Scientists believe that new habitats for butterflies are early effects of global climate change—but that isn’t news, by most people’s measure. Neither is declining rainfall in the Amazon, or thinner ice in the Arctic. We can’t see these changes in our personal lives, and in that sense, they are abstractions. So they don’t grab us the way a plane crash would—even though they may be harbingers of a catastrophe that could, quite literally, alter the fundamentals of life on the planet.… The failure of the United States to get serious about climate change is unforgivable, a human folly beyond imagining.

Excerpts from Open Letter to Washington Post Ombudsman: climate skeptics as sources

Open Letter to The Washington Post

February 11, 2006

Deborah Howell, Ombudsman
The Washington Post

RE: Coverage of climate change news

Dear Ms. Howell,

I am a reader of the Washington Post and a human geographer with an interest in media coverage of science....

I have just completed a LexisNexis review of seven months of climate change coverage by the Washington Post. While I commend the Post on providing some fine reporting on this vital issue, I believe that there is one aspect of your coverage that should be reviewed. Articles that grant equal space to “climate skeptics” severely limit the understanding of readers by diverting their attention away from the fact that there is international scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change being a dangerous, current reality. I hope that you will share this letter with the science writers and editors at the Post so they might reconsider some of their reporting procedures.

NYT & Denier John Christy > abbreviated versions of 2 open letters to ombudsman:

Open Letter to The New York Times

December 27, 2005

Byron Calame, Public Editor
The New York Times

RE: Coverage of climate science news

Dear Mr. Calame,

I am a reader of the New York Times and a human geographer with research interests in science and the media. As you are aware, our nation presently faces many formidable challenges—not the least of which are the ramifications of our dependence on foreign oil and the well-documented changes in the earth’s climate.... As I present the below case study involving coverage of the issue of climate change by the New York Times, I ask that the same be brought to the attention of your science reporters and editors so that they might reconsider some of their procedures.

Antilla Journal Article > Climate of Scepticism:

Climate of scepticism: US newspaper coverage of the science of climate change
Global Environmental Change 15(4): 338-352 (December 2005) Abstract:This two-part study integrates a quantitative review of one year of US newspaper coverage of climate science with a qualitative, comparative analysis of media-created themes and frames using a social constructivist approach. In addition to an examination of newspaper articles, this paper includes a reflexive comparison with attendant wire stories and scientific texts. Special attention is given to articles constructed with and framed by rhetoric emphasising uncertainty, controversy, and climate scepticism.