For years, Fox News has done more than any other major news outlet in the United States to misrepresent climate science and sow confusion about global warming. Fox's inaccurate coverage extends across both its opinion shows and the purportedly straight news programs.

An internal email obtained by Media Matters revealed that Fox News Washington managing editor Bill Sammon ordered the network's journalists 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.”

This position places Fox News even further from the scientific mainstream than man-made global warming skeptic Roy Spencer, who has said, “No one I know seriously debates that warming has actually occurred.” Surveys of climate scientists indicate that around 97 percent of those actively publishing climate research agree global temperatures have risen and human activity is a factor driving that trend.

The picture painted by Fox News doesn't come close to reflecting the state of the climate science field. As a result, News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch was recently placed at the top of Rolling Stone's list of politicians and executives “blocking progress on global warming.”

Tim Arango's February 19 New York Times profile suggests that Murdoch's son, James Murdoch -- who runs News Corp in Europe and Asia -- may be at odds with Fox's behavior on this issue:

ALONG the way, James Murdoch has epitomized the same conservative temperament as his father when it comes to free markets. But on other issues, particularly environmental ones, he is at odds with modern-day conservatism.

[...]

James Murdoch told the group that the News Corporation's own environmental efforts had saved it $35 million. On such matters, he has cast himself as a Teddy Roosevelt-style conservative and has sought to link environmental protection with sound business practice.

The liberal media watchdog Media Matters has crusaded against Fox News's coverage of the climate issue, having released e-mails it obtained last year in which a Fox editor told staff members: “Given the controversy over the veracity of climate change data ... ... we should 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."

James Murdoch's views raise the question of whether he would interfere with Fox News's coverage if he were running the News Corporation. In an interview published in 2009, he said: “All of the climate-prediction models suggest we're on the worst-case trajectory, and some cases worse than the worst case. That's my depressing take on it.”