"Bias in favour of the truth"

onMay 5, 2007 @ 10:02 PDT

This columnist today takes the “Global Warming Swindle” film to task.

Choice quotes:

Certainly, there is considerable pressure to offer a balanced presentation of controversial issues. This is nowhere more apparent than in the case of global warming. Witness Mike Chernoff’s recent attempt to get copies of The Great Global Warming Swindle into high school classrooms to “balance” Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, and his statement that “without balanced information on a subject, an unbiased decision is difficult.”

And,

Many reasons for this have been identified: In our increasingly partisan era, journalists are ultra-sensitive to accusations of bias, so they ensure balance to ward off such allegations; some journalists don’t have the time – and some are too lazy – to conduct a thorough investigation of an issue, so it’s easier to just present competing opinions; and some journalists don’t have the expertise to filter through various opinions and determine which ones are based on solid evidence.”

By Kevin Grandia

Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Tweeters” on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevin’s research into the “climate denial industry” and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Koch’s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a “Certified Expert” on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.