MSM starts to link Sandy with climate change. FOX steps up attempts to discredit it.

[wtmusic]

"Coverage of climate change from television news outlets has dropped precipitously since 2009. And during the lead-up and arrival of Superstorm Sandy, the climate connection to extreme weather was conspicuously absent.

But as broadcast journalists transition from tracking Superstorm Sandy to covering its aftermath, some television outlets are starting to explore the role of climate change in more detail. Starting yesterday afternoon, there was an increase in climate-related stories, with extensive segments appearing on Al Jazeera, Current TV, MSNBC, and NBC. (There were also a couple segments on Fox, both of which were used to raise doubts about climate science).

Below are some of the top pieces covering the link between a warming planet and extreme weather events like Superstorm Sandy."

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/10/31/1115261/watch-television-news-starts-covering-the-link-between-climate-change-after-superstorm-sandy/

Fox News Gives Airtime To A Climate Denier To Discuss Unprecedented Superstorm


This guy is trying a little too hard to look like he's not lying.

"Fox News turned to climate denier Joe Bastardi at least twice in the last two days, where Bastardi presented debunked arguments that unprecedented extreme weather “has nothing to do with global warming” and “everything to do with nature.”

Bastardi appeared on Sean Hannity on Monday (he was also on Fox and Friends, Tuesday):

BASTARDI: When you see CO2 continue to go up and the global temperature goes up, levels off, and you can associate it with the natural cyclical pattern of the oceans and you look at the big picture. And also a lot of these people are just weather voyeurs. What if you’ve been studying since the day you were born? Some of them just study it now."

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/10/31/1112831/fox-climate-sandy/

[Jim__]

1. He sounds like a fox weatherman - he predicted drought busting rains in June - last June.

From wikipedia:

In 2005, Bastardi forecasted hurricane Rita to make landfall as a category 5 storm in Texas but it was only a category 3 storm at landfall. In August 2011, Bastardi forecasted hurricane Irene to make landfall as a category 4 storm on the outer banks of North Carolina and a category 2 storm in New England, which also did not precipitate. Instead, Irene made landfall as a category 1 storm in North Carolina and as a tropical storm in New England.

In 2012, Bastardi invoked the Madden-Julian Oscillation to predict that "drought-busting rains" would occur in the midwest/Ohio valley in June. That was the exact opposite of what actually occurred.

[AverageJoe90]

2. Then again, it IS Fox News.

What else could we expect?

[Cirque du So-What]

3. What an appropriate name that climate-denying shill has

And, yes, it means the same thing in Italian as in English. Also...last time I saw a mouth like that, it had a hook in it.

[wtmusic]

4. LOL