Fox News editor reportedly directed staff to cast doubt on climate science

Fox News's Washington managing editor told his staff last year that reports on climate change should note critics' skepticism about climate science.
 
“Given the controversy over the veracity of climate change data we should refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question. It is not our place as journalists to assert such notions as facts, especially as this debate intensifies,” Bill Sammon said in a Dec. 8, 2009, e-mail published Wednesday by Media Matters, a left-leaning group that monitors the press.

The comments came, according to Media Matters, just minutes after a Fox correspondent reported that the decade was shaping up to be the warmest on record and during United Nations climate change talks in Copenhagen.
 
The e-mail has caused quite a stir in the liberal community, feeding the left’s criticism of the news network’s coverage. It’s the latest effort by Media Matters to target Sammon. The group last week released an e-mail he wrote in which he told staff not to use the phrase “public option” during the congressional healthcare reform debate.

A Fox News spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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