News Corp.'s Decision to go Carbon Neutral by 2010 at Odds with Fox News Reports on Carbon Offsetting, Global Warming

Washington, DC - In an apparent effort to offset the hot air spewed by those on Fox News Channel when it comes to global warming, News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch announced that he plans "to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from his media empire" -- which includes Fox News Channel -- "to zero by 2010." In addition to energy efficiency measures and the purchase of renewable energy to achieve that goal, he reportedly intends to use carbon credits. In response to his efforts to cut News Corp.'s carbon emissions, Media Matters for America released the following statement noting Murdoch's hypocrisy on the subject:

"We applaud Rupert Murdoch's decision to be more energy conscious. Now, if he could only get his employees at Fox News to stop misleading the American people on global warming, he'd really be making some progress," said Karl Frisch, spokesman for Media Matters. "There is an overwhelming consensus in the scientific community on global warming, yet hosts and commentators on Murdoch's Fox News routinely misrepresent the facts on this important issue, leaving too many Americans in the dark and misinformed. The hypocrisy is especially evident when it comes to carbon offsets."

As Media Matters has repeatedly noted, hosts, guests and commentators on Fox News Channel have a long track record of spreading conservative misinformation on global warming and the importance of offsetting carbon emissions, calling it "buying your guilt," a "big environmental lie," and a sort of "indulgence."

Fox News Attacks on Carbon Offsets:

• Discussing supposed "lies" about global warming on the April 29 edition of Fox News' Hannity's America, Hannity claimed that "carbon credits are a sham" and asserted: "Big environmental lie No. 2: It's OK if Learjet liberals fly around in private jets, because they buy carbon offsets."

• On March 25, following Gore's appearance on Capitol Hill to testify on the effects of global warming, Fox News business correspondent Terry Keenan wrote on FoxNews.com: "Get ready to hear a lot about carbon-neutral living in the days and months ahead. It's the new euphemism for Escalade-driving environmentalists who 'purchase' carbon credits to assuage any guilt about their private jets and 20,000 square foot summer homes." Keenan later added: "How do these carbon offsets actually work? Well, like a charm if you're in the business of buying your way out of looking like a hypocrite."

• During the March 25 edition of Hannity's America, while discussing Gore's March 21 testimony on global warming before the House and Senate environmental committees, Hannity asked Drew Johnson, president of the conservative Tennessee Center for Policy Research (TCPR), to "[e]xplain this ridiculous concept that liberals are trying to throw on us about carbon offsets that they can buy sort of like indulgences." Johnson replied: "With carbon offsets, you are essentially saying you are allowing rich liberals ... to pay for a little kid somewhere in a third world country to plant a tree on your behalf to help clean up the environment. You are essentially saying, 'I don't care enough about the environment to take steps in my own life, so I'm going to spend my money to encourage some little kid somewhere in a third world country and ask him to do something." Hannity added: "I won't stop polluting the planet, I'll just, you know, plant a tree and then my conscience is free."

• On the March 19 edition of Hannity & Colmes, after Air America's EcoTalk host Betsy Rosenberg noted that Gore was reportedly using carbon offsets to minimize his ecological footprint, Hannity stated: "Carbon offsets is a crock, and you know it." He later claimed: "If you're Al Gore and a liberal, you can be a hypocrite."

• In a May 11, 2006, post to his "Junk Science" column on FoxNews.com, Steven Milloy, adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, asserted that "[t]he goal of becoming 'carbon neutral' " is to "alleviate your guilt," adding: "The more entrepreneurial of these web sites [those that calculate your carbon footprint] then try to capitalize (literally) on any feelings of guilt you may have by offering to relieve your conscience (and wallet) through the purchase of so-called 'carbon offsets.' " He concluded: "Your carbon footprint? Carbon offset-buyer beware. It's a gimmick designed to part you from your money without providing any measurable environmental benefit."

Fox News and Global Warming

Reports on criticism of Gore omitted steps he reportedly took to reduce "carbon footprint"

On Fox, Inhofe claimed without challenge that "[i]t was warmer in the [19]30s"

http://mediamatters.org/items/200612080007
On Fox News' Special Report, correspondent Molly Henneberg uncritically aired Sen. James Inhofe's false claim that "[i]t was warmer in the '30s than it is today," and Inhofe's baseless assertion that "it was warmer in the 15th century than it is today."

Cavuto caption: "Nation in a Deep Freeze: What Global Warming?"

http://mediamatters.org/items/200701180011
A segment on global warming on the January 17 edition of Fox News' Your World featured on-screen graphics that read: "Global Warming?" and "Nation in a Deep Freeze: What Global Warming?" Host Neil Cavuto began the segment by noting freezing temperatures in Texas, Arizona, and California and asking if these temperatures were "[p]roof that all this hype over global warming could be just that -- hype?"

Misleading NY Times article provides fodder for conservatives to attack Gore on global warming

http://mediamatters.org/items/200703260011
Numerous media figures and conservatives have seized on The New York Times' March 13 article on global warming -- which, as Media Matters for America and others have noted, includes misleading characterizations, a false comparison, and misrepresentations of Gore's position -- to attack Gore.

Ignoring NAS report, Cavuto falsely claimed temperature data not reliable beyond "about 100 years"

http://mediamatters.org/items/200703210016
Neil Cavuto falsely claimed that data on the Earth's average temperature are not "reliable" beyond "about 100 years." In fact, the National Academy of Sciences released a report in June 2006, which stated, "with a high level of confidence," that during the last few decades of the 20th century, the Earth's average surface temperature was higher than any other period in the last 400 years.

Olbermann awarded Coulter "Worst Person" bronze for anti-environmentalist comments

http://mediamatters.org/items/200702280009
On the February 27 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann awarded right-wing pundit Ann Coulter "the bronze" in his nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment for claiming, as Media Matters for America documented, that environmentalists want to create a world "where they -- the beautiful rich people -- live in their homes, and there are a few maids. Well-tempered maids will come in and take care of them." Coulter made her comments on the February 26 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, during which she also maintained that proponents of energy efficiency "want to kill humans" and that energy-efficient refrigerators are "not new energy" but, rather, a sign that "humankind is dying."

Coulter: Environmentalists "want to destroy the middle class" but "would also wipe out their little friends in Chad and Darfur"

http://mediamatters.org/items/200702270007
On the February 26 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter argued that proponents of energy efficiency "want to kill humans" and that energy efficient refrigerators are "not new energy" but, rather, a sign that "humankind is dying." Coulter also suggested that environmentalists' energy policies are based on "spend[ing] less" and "us[ing] candles."

Isn't it ironic? Blitzer, Kelly, Hume note cancellation of global warming hearing due to winter storm

http://mediamatters.org/items/200702150012
On February 14, CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Fox News Channel's Megyn Kelly and Brit Hume all reported on the cancellation of a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee hearing on climate change due to severe winter weather conditions in Washington, D.C., with both Blitzer and Kelly deeming the turn of events "ironic," suggesting that cold weather and snow in February cast doubt on the existence of global warming.

WSJ's Stephens touted conservative think tank as "very effective" on global warming

http://mediamatters.org/items/200612120006
On Fox News' Journal Editorial Report, Bret Stephens claimed that "a relatively small, very effective think tank," the Competitive Enterprise Institute, "has been consistently pointing out the flaws in some of the political conclusions that have been reached" about global warming. But contrary to Stephens' assertion about the quality of CEI's work, Media Matters has documented that two of CEI's television ads contained misleading statements about global warming.

On Fox, Inhofe claimed without challenge that "[i]t was warmer in the [19]30s"

http://mediamatters.org/items/200612080007
On Special Report, correspondent Molly Henneberg uncritically aired Sen. James Inhofe's false claim that "[i]t was warmer in the '30s than it is today," and Inhofe's baseless assertion that "it was warmer in the 15th century than it is today."

Conservatives attack animated penguin movie as global-warming propaganda

http://mediamatters.org/items/200611300004
Cultural conservatives, led by CNN's Glenn Beck, Fox News' Neil Cavuto, and syndicated talk-show host Michael Medved, have all criticized Happy Feet, the new Warner Bros. animated movie about Mumble, the tap-dancing penguin, because they say the movie is laced with liberal overtones and tries to "indoctrinate" children. Specifically, conservatives claim the movie is pushing a global-warming agenda. Yet the film makes no references to global warming. Instead, the movie's conservationist subplot revolves around Mumble's attempt to combat man-made pollution and overfishing in his quest to help his fellow penguins. The blockbuster movie, which has already earned more than $100 million in U.S. ticket sales, is silent regarding the issue of global warming.

Fox & Friends interviewed Inhofe again; co-host Doocy seconded his claim that humans are not a cause of global warming

http://mediamatters.org/items/200611290004
Fox & Friends conducted a one-on-one interview with Sen. James Inhofe for the second time in two weeks, during which he asserted that there is no "relationship between manmade gases and global warming." In fact, the scientific consensus view is that "human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming" of the planet.

Hannity: Despite both believing in global warming threat, "Al Gore is unhinged," but Pat Robertson is "sane"

http://mediamatters.org/items/200608040006
On Hannity & Colmes, Sean Hannity declared that although "Al Gore is unhinged" because he is warning of the threat posed by global warming, Pat Robertson is "sane" despite having announced that the recent record-breaking heat "is making a convert out of me" on global warming.

Responding to weatherman's report about North American heat waves, Doocy declared "it's not global warming"

http://mediamatters.org/items/200608010003
On Fox & Friends First, Steve Doocy responded to a report by meteorologist Joe Bastardi about hot North American summers by suggesting, "It's just a great big cycle, it's not global warming." As Media Matters for America has documented, there is widespread consensus among scientists that global warming exists, and that humans are contributing to the problem.

On Fox News' Beltway Boys, Barnes denied that humans are a cause of global warming

http://mediamatters.org/items/200607310005
On Fox News' The Beltway Boys, Fred Barnes again denied the broad scientific consensus that human activity is contributing to global warming.

On Fox's Your World, CEI's Horner misled on Kyoto, global warming

http://mediamatters.org/items/200606160012
On Fox News' Your World, Chris Horner, counsel for the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), claimed falsely that the Clinton administration chose not to submit the Kyoto Protocol to the Senate for ratification because it did not consider global warming a "high-profile issue." In fact, Senate Republicans made clear at the time that Clinton would not be able to garner enough votes in the Senate to ratify the treaty.

Fox News' Hemmer hosted Wall Street Journal's "convincing" Du Pont, who continued to mislead on global warming

http://mediamatters.org/items/200605250008
On Fox News Live, anchor Bill Hemmer interviewed Wall Street Journal columnist and former Gov. Pete Du Pont (R-DE) about An Inconvenient Truth, a new documentary on former Vice President Al Gore's campaign to raise awareness of global warming. During the interview, Hemmer repeatedly characterized as "convincing" Du Pont's Journal column, which presented a series of assertions on global warming that misrepresent the underlying scientific research and relied on a misleading, industry-funded study on climate change to claim that the "truth about 'global warming' is much less dire than Al Gore wants you to think."

On Special Report, Barnes misled on global warming

http://mediamatters.org/items/200605250006
During a discussion on Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume about the global-warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth, Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes claimed, "It's not known for certain or anywhere near certain whether the small increase in temperature over the last hundred years is caused by man or not." However, there is little debate within the scientific community about whether human activity is responsible for the increase in global surface and water temperatures, save for a small group of skeptics, many of whom are tied to organizations with a financial stake in combating global-warming theory.

In special that "gets to the bottom" of global warming debate, Fox featured only skeptics, a small minority among scientists

http://mediamatters.org/items/200605230001
In his introduction for the May 21, 2006, Fox News special on global warming, host David Asman left viewers with the impression that there is a significant divide among scientists regarding the cause of global warming. "Today, almost all scientists agree that there is global warming," he said, "but there is no scientific consensus about what causes global warming or how it will affect our lives." But, while Asman went on to interview numerous experts skeptical of the threat posed by global warming or whether human activity causes it, he never informed viewers that those skeptics represent a small minority within the scientific community.

Promoting new book on O'Reilly Factor, Stossel again downplayed global warming

http://mediamatters.org/items/200605150002
On Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, ABC News 20/20 co-anchor John Stossel trivialized global temperature increases, stating "[t]he globe is warming, but it's one degree." In fact, scientists have determined that the approximately 1 degree Fahrenheit * increase in global temperature during the 20th century has adversely affected several ecosystems and that a continuation of warming trends could be detrimental to humankind.

Hume ignored facts in attempt to discredit climate change report, scientist

http://mediamatters.org/items/200504010001
Apparently relying on a misleading article authored by an energy industry-funded climate scientist, Fox News Washington managing editor Brit Hume attacked the credibility of a World Bank scientist in order to discredit a recent United Nations report on world ecosystems written by a panel the scientist co-chaired.

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