http://www.sciencemag.org/content/306/5702/1686.full
http://fair.org/extra-online-articles/Journalistic-Balance-as-Global-Warming-Bias/
Despite there being a scientific consensus on global warming with it's denial among the scientific community virtually nonexistent (literally 0% of peer reviewed scientific articles have denied the effects of global warming), the slightly smaller half of Americans still deny that global climate change is real. According to a FAIR study, about 53% of articles from the popular press were skeptical of the effects of global warming taken from a 14-year period of time.
Is media bias the reason that so many Americans are in denial of science?
-
John Oliver did a terrific segment on his new show, [i]Last Week Tonight[/i] on HBO, this past Sunday about this issue. It really boils down to horrendous media coverage. The rare times media outlets like CNN cover climate change, they pose it as a real debate, having one scientist debate one naysayer. Such a presentation completely hides the overwhelming scientific consensus about man-made climate change. On top of this, the actual amount of coverage is pretty deplorable. If CNN devoted half as much time on this issue as they did on the missing Malaysian plane, maybe people would care more and have better information. Finally, big oil companies and the right wing (with Fox News as their loudspeaker) perpetuate misleading or downright counter-factual information about this issue.