This morning, Media Matters exposed a directive sent by Fox News Washington Managing editor Bill Sammon to the network's journalists questioning the “veracity of climate change data” and ordering them to “refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question.” Sammon added that “It is not our place as journalists to assert such notions as facts, especially as this debate intensifies.”

Sammon's email was sent during crucial global climate change talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, and came amid the network's relentless promotion of the manufactured “Climategate” scandal.

It's important to point out that what Sammon calls “notions” about climate change are anything but -- as far as the science is concerned, the fact that the planet is currently warming is well-established. As the National Climatic Data Center explains, the warming trend “is apparent in all of the independent methods of calculating global temperature change” and “is also confirmed by other independent observations.”

In contrast to Sammon, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch has stated unequivocally that “climate change poses clear, catastrophic threats,” and that “we certainly can't afford the risk of inaction.”

In 2007, Murdoch announced an initiative to make News Corp. carbon neutral in the hopes that it would inspire their audience to also reduce their carbon footprint. In his words, “we can do something that's unique, different from just any other company. We can set an example, and we can reach our audiences. Our audience's carbon footprint is 10,000 times bigger than ours... That's the carbon footprint we want to conquer.”

Murdoch is right. The carbon footprint of News Corp.'s audience is “10,000 times bigger than” the company's, which is why the benefits of his company's attempt to become carbon neutral pale in comparison to the damage done by the network's ongoing war on climate science.

For his part, Murdoch has repeatedly stressed the division between Fox's “news” and “opinion” programs in order to defend the network from criticism. But Sammon is firmly in the supposed “news” camp, and is using his position to order the network to poison the well of public opinion on an issue Murdoch thinks -- and the world's climate scientists agree -- poses “clear, catastrophic threats.”

As CEO of News Corp., Murdoch can either profess to care about them setting an “example” for their audience on climate change, or he can employ a Washington managing editor that directs his staff to push phony stories to cast doubt on the science behind it.

He can't do both.