Media Ignores the ‘Hole’ Ozone Story

Published March 1, 1999

Not all climate scientists accept the argument that human emissions of greenhouse gases are responsible for a thinning of the Earth’s ozone layer. But the skeptics’ views are consistently ignored by a news media that apparently does.

In an article titled “Gaping Hole in Ozone Reporting,” writers for the Free Market Project note that “the networks for years have engaged in one-sided reporting on global warming, ignoring those climate scientists who point out, for instance, that most of the Earth’s warming over the past hundred years occurred prior to the 1940s, while most greenhouse gas emissions have occurred since the 1940s.”

The article appeared in the October issue of MediaNomics, a monthly newsletter of the Media Research Center in Alexandria, Virginia. The publication highlights reports by NBC and CBS, on September 10 and October 6, respectively, in which “neither (reporter) bothered to interview a climate scientist skeptical of such ozone theories.”

“Every year at about the same time, there is a predictable press release issued by the World Meteorological Organization quoting its ozone scientist, Rumen Bojkov, with some alarmist pronouncement,” climate scientist S. Fred Singer told the Media Research Center.

“The truth of the matter is that the hole, a temporary thinning of the layer, has pretty well stabilized within the last decade, and now fluctuates according to the climate, from day-to-day and from year-to-year,” Singer said. “There has been no report published showing an increasing trend in solar ultraviolet radiation on the ground. And that’s the only thing that counts if we’re talking about the effects of ozone changes.”