Journalism and Environmental Issues

Paper Summary:

The paper argues that the mainstream media in the United States is falling short in its responsibility to provide full disclosure about the environmental issues facing our society. The paper summarizes the findings of three articles; "NY Times Editorial Op-Ed Heat Wave Hype Melts under Scrutiny" by Marc Morano, "Defamation as a Tactic: Promoting Global Warming Alarmism by Misleading Readers" by Amy Ridenour, and "Environmentalists Surf Tsunami Tragedy" by Steven Milloy. The paper concludes that people should put their faith more in experts who have actually studied environmental phenomena than in journalists who have little, if any, expertise.

From the Paper:

"The first article up for discussion is an article by Marc Morano entitled "NY Times Editorial Op-Ed Heat Wave Hype Melts under Scrutiny". The article basically summarizes Times writer Bob Herbert's contention that recent heat waves which have hit the Eastern United States are the product of (human-made) global warming. As it turns out, Mr. Herbert's arguments for his strongly-worded thesis are predicated upon information he draws from Al Gore's new film, "An Inconvenient Truth" and from other tidbits of evidence that do not stand up to close scrutiny. In fact, Morano's article is chiefly devoted to highlighting how Herbert fails to consider natural planetary evolution as the chief cause of environmental change; at the same time, he refers to the many professional scientists who argue that climactic change in various parts of the world began long before contemporary "greenhouse emissions" took root (the receding of the ice-flows of the Kilimanjaro being one example) and/or who point out that there is no factual evidence for the contention that the world is getting warmer (Morano, para.1-16)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Milloy, Steven. "Environmentalists Surf Tsunami Tragedy." FoxNews.com. 3 Jan. 2005. Fox News Network, LLC. 25 Sept. 2006 <http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,142991,00.html>
• Morano, Marc. "New York Times Op-Ed Heat Wave Hype Melts under Scrutiny." Bob Herbert, New York Times, Climate Hysteria. 5 Aug. 2006. Canada Free Press. 25 Sept. 2006 <http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/morano080506.htm>
• Ridenour, Amy. "Defamation as a Tactic: Promoting Global Warming Alarmism by Misleading Readers." NewsBusters: Exposing and Combating Liberal Media Bias. 13 Aug. 2006. NewsBusters.com. 25 Sept. 2006 <http://newsbusters.org/node/6940>

More papers on Journalism and Environmental Issues:

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• Article Review # 63817 : "Ethics Article Analysis"

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