Science or Spin?

Assessing the Accuracy of Cable News
Coverage of Climate Science


Following are excerpts.
Read the full study here:
http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/legacy/assets/documents/global_warming/Science-or-Spin-report.pdf



If citizens are to contribute to a democratic debate about
responses to climate change and efforts to curb it, established
climate science should always be portrayed accurately in
the media. Every news or opinion program, regardless of its
approach to questions of climate policy, should empower its
viewers with accurate portrayals of the physical realities we
face. Audiences deserve coverage that accurately informs
them about climate science, so they can apply their own
values and reasoning to questions of climate policy. But the
differences among the cable networks in the accuracy of their
science coverage are stark. Networks differ dramatically in
the degree to which they are equipping their viewers to be
active, informed citizens when it comes to climate policy
deliberations at the federal, state, and local levels, and in their
personal lives.
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Cable news coverage of climate science often reflects
and reinforces people’s perceptions of the science, which
are related to their partisan identification as Democrats,
Republicans, Independents, or Tea Party supporters (Pew
2013). Political ideology can also have a large effect on
whether or not people accept the scientific consensus on
climate change (Kahan, Jenkins-Smith, and Braman 2010).

On the cable news networks, as in the halls of Congress,
discussions about climate change feature a mix of political
opinions and scientific information. Many opponents of
policies designed to reduce emissions or prepare for climate
change, including hosts and guests on cable news programs,
use inaccurate and dismissive portrayals of established 
climate science in order to bolster their political arguments
and preferences. Meanwhile, some advocates for proactive
climate policies occasionally overstate the effects of climate
change, although they make misleading statements far less
often than do opponents of climate policy action.

Established climate science is clear: human activities
are largely responsible for the majority of recent warming,
and climate change is already disrupting human and
natural systems (IPCC 2013; NRC 2011). Nevertheless,
public attitudes toward climate science lag behind scientific
understanding. Only two-thirds of Americans accept 
that climate change is occurring, and less than half of
the population recognizes that it is largely due to human
activities (Leiserowitz et al. 2014).

Too often, debates about climate policy—whether or
how to prepare for a changing climate, or what volume of
heat-trapping emissions should be allowed to go into the
atmosphere—are conflated with false debates about whether
or not the science itself is valid. Debates over whether
scientific conclusions should be accepted prevent the
American public from having an open, democratic dialogue
about whether, when, and how to respond to the scientific
evidence related to risks from climate change.


Ideally, media coverage of climate science, especially
as it relates to climate policy, would help audiences make
informed judgments about proposed responses to climate
change, grounded in accurate discussions of climate science. 

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Current climate change media coverage and commentary
does not always appropriately utilize scientific findings to
inform audiences. Media outlets sometimes uncritically
reflect or promote the dismissive views that many policy
makers and public figures hold of climate science. At the
same time, in the course of regular reporting or discussions
on climate change, as media outlets convey the science to
their audiences, they can simply make errors. Further, when
advocates for proactive climate policy appear on television,
they sometimes overstate the risks of climate change. In
each case, misrepresentations of climate science weaken
the public’s ability to understand and grapple with the
risks of climate change and cloud the decisions individuals
and their communities face as they consider responses to
climate change.


Cutting to the chase. The results:

To gauge how accurately elite media outlets inform audiences on climate
science, we analyzed climate science coverage across the three major cable news
networks: Cable News Network (CNN), Fox News Channel, and MSNBC. We
found that the accuracy of this coverage varied significantly across networks.

In  2013, 70 percent of climate-science-related segments on CNN were accurate,
28 percent of Fox News Channel segments were accurate, and 92 percent of such
segments on MSNBC were accurate.


"Of the three major cable
news networks, Fox had
the lowest percentage
of accurate coverage
of climate science, at
28 percent. "

"The most productive step
that Fox could take to
improve the accuracy of
its coverage of climate
science would be for hosts
and guests to differentiate
between scientific facts
about climate change and
political opinions about
climate policy. "