Climate deniers in denial

By Libby

The Daily Mail knowing full well that most readers don't make it past the opening grafs of any given piece, open up their 'report' on the latest papal prouncement with a thoroughly misleading lede.

Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology.

If you make it through the whole article, they then offer quotes that debunk their own lede, though they couch them carefully enough that the careless reader who makes it that far, and is predisposed to climate change denial, still might not get the point the Pope was trying to make.

Steve M sets the record straight with a true translation of the remarks and clearly the Holy See wasn't taking sides at all and in fact the remarks could just as easily be construed as a slap at the deniers, along with with a swipe at the greedy who would push the costs of climate denial onto the poor. As Steve notes, some outlets were more honest.

A Reuters story on this papal message bears the headline "Pope Urges Prudence in Environmental Decisions." That's accurate. AFP's story is called "Environmental Policies Must Respect Needs of the Poor: Pope." That's accurate as well -- he does say that. But the Daily Mail has a vested interest in making you think that the Pope is an environmental skeptic. So it lied about his message.

I don't whether to be comforted or depressed that the UK's media is just as bad as our own.