Submitted by Bob Burton on
"Take a step back and get the science right first, writes a special correspondent," is the teaser for a 920-word feature on climate change in The Australian's Inquirer section. "The public and political debate has tended to be dominated by the convenient but highly political argument that blames industry and industrial activity for its emissions of carbon dioxide," the correspondent complained, echoing the arguments of climate change skeptics. Who was this "special correspondent" to The Australian, the national newspaper of Rupert Murdoch's News Limited? The footer disclosed only that "the correspondent is employed by a resources lobby." Why an opinion column was not on the opinion pages, but in a section normally reserved for features by real journalists, went unexplained. Nor was it explained why a newspaper printed an entire article by an anonymous contributor, when it won't print anonymous letters to the editor.
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