CNN criticised for climate change coverage

A principal author of the 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has criticised the media’s coverage of climate change.

Stanford Professor Stephen Schneider’s comments come after American television channel, Cable News Network (CNN) sacked their entire science and environment reporting teams. The climate researcher and policy analyst, who wrote chapter 19 in the intergovernmental report, blasted media bosses at a symposium at the Annual Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago on last week.

Prof. Schneider lambasted media chiefs, saying: “business managers of media organizations, you are screwing up your responsibility by firing science and environment reporters who are frankly the only ones competent to do this.

"Science is not politics. You can't just get two opposing viewpoints and think you've done due diligence. You've got to cover the multiple views and the relative credibility of each view," he continued.

Mr Schneider’s criticism of the media’s handling of the climate change debate exposes deeper environmental issues across American networks. National Broadcasting Company (NBC) Universal made the first of several proposed cuts in December, axing the entire team behind their environmental programme Forecast Earth and several key meteorologists.

Speaking to the Columbia Journalism Review, Christy George, president of America’s society of environmental journalists, was disheartened at the recent announcements: “For the last year or two, television has, in general, been making a commitment to beefing up its environmental coverage.

“There is going to be a lot to cover in science, technology and environment and it’s not going to be enough to just cover the politics of it to keep people informed.”