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Al Gore Blasts Fox News Over Global Warming 'Bias'

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Former Vice President Al Gore is picking a fight with Fox News over a year-old management memo that he says betrays a bias against global warming science.

"Fox News has consistently delivered false and misleading information to its viewers about the climate crisis," Gore wrote on his website. "The leaked e-mails now suggest that this bias comes directly form the executives responsible for their news coverage."

Gore was referring to a Dec. 8, 2009 memo attributed to Fox News' Washington Managing Editor Bill Sammon and posted by the liberal-leaning website Media Matters, according to The Hill newspaper. In the memo, Sammon wrote, "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."

Former Vice President Al GoreMedia Matters said the memo went out just after a Fox News correspondent reported that the United Nations World Meteorological Organization had said 2000 to 2009 was the warmest decade on record.

The prevailing view in the scientific community is that it's getting hotter -- and the warming is due to human activities such as energy production from coal-fired power plants. But there are dissenters, some of whom suggest that the warming is cyclical and not man-made.

"There's no legitimate debate," Gore insisted. "The planet is warming. Moreover, man-made global warming pollution is the principal cause."

Overall, the former vice president said, "the media's coverage of climate issues has been atrocious. However, Fox seems determined to set the bar even lower."

The Hill did not report any response from Fox News to Gore's remarks.

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Bill

> As for your cyclical warming theory, it would be more believable if the planet wasn't showing such a high and rapid rate of change.

Tausands, it sounds like you're referring to the "hockey stick" chart that global warming advocates so readily draw out to show the "rapid" change as of late. But that view only shows a very small period of time, about 100 years. Expand that view to one hundred times what you're looking at, and you can easily see the periods of warming and cooling in the Earth's history, even throughout human history.

The "hockey stick" chart was discounted a long time ago, and any intellectually honest debater would be looking for some other foundation for their theories.

February 23 2011 at 5:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
lsjlabue

Al Gores, factless and bias case for global warming is OK. Nobody eles can have an opinion. It is all about the money.

February 01 2011 at 8:19 PM Report abuse +5 rate up rate down Reply
John Vilvens

Let both sides of this THEORY have an open debate. UN was caught falsifing document and temperatures then losing the imformation so it could not be check. 10,000 years ago we had a ice age which it seems was not the first one. So let the scientist from both sides debate it and see where the facts land.

December 16 2010 at 6:24 PM Report abuse +7 rate up rate down Reply
beretta9mm00

Al Gore?? He's till around?? I thought he had so discredited himself that not even the liberal media were speaking with him. Oh--I got it. He's going to resurrect his image by taking on Fox News. Great. I'll get him an ivite to appear on O'Reilly, or maybe even better, Hannity. Wouldn't you love to see that? There wouldn't be enough left of his sorry lying butt after appearing on either program to pick up with a blotter. Enough of Gore.

December 16 2010 at 3:09 PM Report abuse +19 rate up rate down Reply
monza866

Gore doesn't debate global warming, he justs expects us to believe him. Bias is not what we have here but a lack of hard evidence is a fact. Already he has admitted the folly of ethanol and his profitable carbon credits is a money maker. When you disparage critics you have to know his facts are suspect.

December 16 2010 at 1:26 PM Report abuse +33 rate up rate down Reply
jhanson2463

It does make you wonder which has old Al more upset, the shot to his ego (How dare anyone disagree with him - again) or the billions he and his cronies stand to lose if we don't fall for the Cap & Trade scam.

December 16 2010 at 12:57 PM Report abuse +32 rate up rate down Reply
Mr. Natural

Mr. Gore stands to make a lot of money off this, as well as others..

December 16 2010 at 12:07 PM Report abuse +37 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Mr. Natural's comment
begbrgstrm

And that's Mr. Gore's bottom line!

December 16 2010 at 12:19 PM Report abuse +27 rate up rate down Reply
kevinm449

I'm not comfotable paying more for energy based on theories. It's going to be hard to convince modern Americans to believe in global warming when citrus farmers are hovering helicopters over thier crops to keep them from freezing. Perhaps Gore could spend the winter in Florida (instead of his new home at sea level BTW) so those farmer could benifit from all HIS hot air. I'd like to see a climate study encompassing solar and volcanic activity, and not from an outfit with the word "world" or "global" in it's name. We should build half a dozen nuclear power stations around the country and watch our utility bills plummet. We the people need to quit electing officials anxious to dump our money into left-wing new world order money grabbing scams.

December 16 2010 at 11:56 AM Report abuse +26 rate up rate down Reply
luvtopleaze

The public knows its a scam to generate a market worth billions of dollars selling and trading energy credits. In the end, the public costs skyrockets BILLIONS of $$$$ while a small handful of people (including Gore) profit beyond imagination.

December 16 2010 at 11:55 AM Report abuse +33 rate up rate down Reply
rann948

I think Fox News' analysis is correct. It is NOT the responsibility of reporters to decide what is true.
Al Gore, who has in fact NO credentials in science, has an emotional, biased opinion on global climate change. It is ridiculous for him to expect the media to kow-tow to him as if he is the climate guru. Show me the data that specifically and scientifically proves what percentage of the global temperature increase is man-made and what is naturally occurring. Doesn't exist. They don't know. So we could do all the heat reducing exercises we want and have it not make one degree of difference. When witch-doctor thinking takes the place of honest science, we are all in trouble.

December 16 2010 at 11:36 AM Report abuse +35 rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to rann948's comment

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