Fox News cut away from President Barack Obama's address on climate change in favor of a lawyer from a fossil-fuel-funded think tank, who proceeded to dismiss the science indicating significant manmade global warming.
On Tuesday, America Live interrupted Obama's speech, claiming that the president's statement that “the planet is warming and human activity is contributing to it” is “not the full story.” Host Megyn Kelly then interviewed Chris Horner, a Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and American Tradition Institute (ATI) fellow who often appears on Fox News to cast doubt on climate science.
Kelly granted Horner, a lawyer who has no scientific training, nearly as much air time (approximately 4 minutes and 10 seconds) as the leader of the free world (approximately 4 minutes and 35 seconds):
Kelly and Horner each claimed there has been “no warming” in the last 15 years, with the latter laughably declaring “the presidency deserves more than [warnings about climate change].” However, short-term temperature trends do not undermine the extensive evidence that the planet is getting warmer, largely due to human activity, at a rate that will have significant negative impacts.
Horner has spearheaded an ongoing effort to attack the Environmental Protection Agency and hype the Obama administration's alleged “war on coal,” even when no evidence backs him up. Both CEI and ATI have financial ties to Koch Industries and other fossil fuel interests.
According to Politico and Mediabistro, many other cable networks skipped the address, with the Weather Channel, Fox Business and Bloomberg among the only ones to carry the full speech.
Previously:
Fox Cuts Away From Obama's Berlin Speech To Cover Tea Party Protests