By Peter Hart, FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting)

You would think–or maybe hope–that journalists who have to appear alongside climate change deniers would find it a bit awkward. It used to be that media were faulted for creating false “balance” in coverage of climate change–quoting reality-based scientists in roughly equal measure with non-scientists who either don’t think there’s a problem or don’t think human activity has anything to do with it. (See our addendum with story on “balance”.)

That doesn’t seem to be as much of a problem anymore (though it made a comeback after “Climategate”). But ABC has a built-in climate problem: The network’s Sunday morning show regularly includes right-wing climate denier George Will, which means his marginal viewpoint on a massively important story–the fate of the planet– has a seat at the table whenever climate change comes up (which isn’t often). Continue reading »