Fox News is under fire from an environmental group for declining to run ads from a tongue and cheek campaign focused on climate change.
Friends of The Earth attempted to submit the ad which consisted of a TV anchor gradually submerged under rising waters (watch video below). The ad criticized what the activists call the channel's "notorious climate science denial."
FOE thought it would be a good idea to debut the ad on Fox News during the Republican Convention. “We want to call out the nefarious role Fox News plays by keeping its audience confused about the climate threat to the country and world,” the NGOs President Erich Pica said in a press release. “Of course Fox News climate distortion is a big part of why Donald Trump and Republican elected officials also deny climate change, to the nation’s physical and economic peril.”
But Fox News, also known for slanting its broadcasting with a conservative tinge, decided to pass on accepting money to run the ad.
The activists cite a pattern of bias and distortion from the television network when it comes to reporting on global warming. They say that its stories usually call climate change a hoax and state that carbon dioxide produced by industrial activities doesn't have an impact on Earth's ecosystems. Their assertions are based on a study published by the International Journal of Press which indicates that, compared to CNN and MSNBC, Fox interviews a greater ratio of climate change doubters to believers. The study also found that there's "a negative association between Fox News viewership and acceptance of global warming."
Another study quoted by Friends of Earth, in this case prepared by the Union of Concerned Scientists, found that Fox's coverage denigrates climate science "by either promoting distrust in scientists and scientific institutions or placing acceptance of climate change in an ideological, rather than fact-based, context." The report also says that the network cherry picks the data it presents on global warming reports and uses citations that are plagued with misleading claims.
FOE's ad, they said, was a way to address these issues. “We call on James Murdoch to demand that his father and Fox News chief Roger Ailes stop distorting climate science,” Pica said.
After Fox refused to air the ad, Fenton Communications’ media buyer (the piece's co-producers) approached CNN, but got rejected one more time. According to the company's chairman David Fenton, CNN expressed concerns about the possibility of its viewers getting confused as to what channel they were watching.
Fenton is still waiting to hear if MSNBC would accept the ad, which is currently running on Friends of Earth's social media channels under the hashtag #FOXFoolsOnClimate.
Friend of Earth mock Fox News's climate coverage.
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