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.