As Predicted: Media Uncritically Reports NRDC Press Release

Yesterday, I wrote about today's teleconference by the Big Environment advocacy group the National Resources Defense Council and predicted news organizations would fall for exaggerating the effects of global warming. Meaning, they would not independently check the credentials of those giving the information, the data or the claims.  Bingo!

Here is a screen capture of the press release:

Here is a Midwest newspaper's coverage (this is all over the web, I'm picking one newspaper as an example):

click to enlarge

While I credit the newspaper for identifying the source, they simply bought the advocacy group's figures from the press release.

Yesterday, I wrote:
Tomorrow, there will be a teleconference organized by a Big Environment group to tell us about last year's drought and crop losses and -- undoubtedly -- try to tie them to global warming. It is appears to be an example of how Big Environment attempts to manage the news to make global warming seem worse than it actually is. 

Here is the newspaper's coverage. Note the word "promises."

There is no evidence that droughts, floods, tornadoes, or hurricanes are getting worse. That is not just my opinion, that is the official position of the United Nations' pro-global warming Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in their December, 2012, report. The newspaper doesn't even bother to balance global warming gloom and doom article with a pro-global warming source!

Finally, as predicted, the expert quoted is an attorney not a scientist. She is admitted to the bar in California according to the NRDC web site.

While everyone is entitled to their opinion about global warming, the above is precisely what I predicted: That scientifically questionable statements would be made by an advocacy group and media would uncritically print them.

Disappointing.