OPINION/COMMENTARY

Destroying America To Save The World

This is the third time the MRC’s Free Market Project has analyzed network coverage of global warming. We wanted to know whether the past pro-Kyoto slant continued. To find out, Free Market Project researchers analyzed all the news stories about global warming and the Kyoto Protocol during the George W. Bush presidency – from January 20, 2001 until September 30, 2004. This was a time of a pivotal policy shift in the executive branch of government. The stories aired on the three broadcast network evening news shows (ABC’s World News Tonight, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News), as well as the two major cable news shows (CNN’s News Night with Aaron Brown and the Fox Report). All three broadcast networks provided a fairly similar amount of coverage. CBS aired the most stories (49 stories, including 37 full reports and the largest number of anchor briefs – 12) followed by NBC with 47 stories (41 full reports, 6 anchor briefs) and ABC with 43 (36 full reports and 7 anchor briefs). The two cable networks ran a total of 26 pieces on global warming. The Fox News Channel led with 16 pieces (9 full reports and 7 anchor briefs). CNN had the lowest level of coverage with only 10 stories. The network news bias strongly favors reporting about the potential impact of global warming over any potential impact from signing the Kyoto agreement....