AP Runs Environmental Propaganda Piece as News
Wizbang
By Paul on Media
Another case of journalism by fax machine. For those of you not familiar with the phenomenon, it works like this. An environmentalist wakes up one morning and types up a "report" in the name of his "environmental group." They then fax that "report" to the media who runs it nearly verbatim. AKA Journalism by press release.
Consider this AP report which I took the unusual step of reproducing in its entirety. Read it critically, you might notice a few things missing:
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Group Warns of Shrinking Glaciers' Effect
Science [-sic] - AP
By JONATHAN FOWLER, Associated Press Writer
GENEVA - The shrinking of Himalayan glaciers could fuel an upswing in flooding in China, India and Nepal, before creating water shortages for hundreds of millions of people across the region, a leading environmental group warned Monday.
In a report, the Switzerland-based World Wide Fund for Nature said the rate of retreat of the Asian mountain range's glaciers is accelerating because of global warming, and has now reached 33-49 feet a year.
"The rapid melting of Himalayan glaciers will first increase the volume of water in rivers causing widespread flooding," said Jennifer Morgan, head of WWF's global climate change program. "But in a few decades this situation will change and the water level in rivers will decline, meaning massive economic and environmental problems for people in Western China, Nepal and Northern India."
Himalayan glaciers feed into seven of Asia's biggest rivers: the Ganges; Indus; Brahmaputra; Mekong; Thanlwin, formerly known as the Salween; Yangtze and Yellow.
WWF noted that this ensures a year-round water supply to hundreds of millions of people in the Indian subcontinent and China.
As glacier water flows dwindle, the energy potential of hydroelectric power will decrease, causing problems for industry, while reduced irrigation means lower crop production, it said.
Nepal has an annual average temperature rise of .11 degrees Fahrenheit. The report said that flows have decreased in three of Nepal's snow-fed rivers.
In China, the report said, the Qinhai Plateau's wetlands have seen declining lake water levels, lake shrinkage, and the degradation of swampland. In India, the Gangotri glacier, which supports one of India's largest river basins, is receding at an average rate of 76 feet per year.
story.news.yahoo.com
>>>
All the "journalist" did was send out the environmental group's press release. There was no checking to see if any of it was true. There was no interview from any scientist who might disagree. Nothing. Just a restatement of the so called "report."
I hope the AP got paid for that. The pr-newswire makes big money for publishing press releases. This is how environmental "science" reporting works today. An environmental group types up a "report" that can claim basically anything and the media runs it unchallenged. Science be damned, the media will report anything the environmentalists tell them to.
Now- If Halliburton released a "report" that said we had enough oil in the ground to last us another 100 years, do you think the AP would run that unchallenged? Liberal bias in the media? What liberal bias?
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