(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Learning Science Apparently A 'Radical Agenda' When It Comes To Climate Change [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-09-11 Should schools teach science? Should journalists report on it? Not according to a pair of op-eds published last week, both gasping and clutching pearls at the idea of people becoming better informed about an issue of global consequence. On Thursday, The Daily Caller ran Larry Behrens' op-ed headlined, " Inside Climate Alarmists' 'Blueprint For Media Transformation .'" Behrens’ supposedly "inside" information is a very public posting about a two-day event on reporting on climate change that Covering Climate Now is hosting with the Columbia Journalism Review, The Nation, The Guardian, and Solutions Journalism Network. The invitation, Behrens cites, invites reporters "from around the world for an unprecedented conversation about how to cover a world on fire." Apparently uncomfortable with figures of speech, Behrens claims "nothing says dispassionate objectivity like the phrase 'world on fire.'" Again, the headline to his piece includes the phrase "climate alarmists," so clearly he knows a thing or two about dispassionate objectivity… But since it's being held at the Columbia Journalism School, that's the institution Behrens targets, neglecting to mention the range of media organizations participating in the event. He calls the school, where students learn to be reporters, "one of the institutions leftist journalists strive to impress. It's like a gated country club for the liberal elite who are hosting a big party for reporters to learn how to write on climate." It's hardly a gated country club, given that the invite page he links to clearly has a note saying, "By popular demand, we will livestream the event, for those not able to attend in person, and recordings will remain available after the conference concludes." Livestreaming is pretty much the opposite of gatekeeping, but if Behrens were honest, he'd have a real job, instead of being a propagandist for Power the Future , a climate denial-spreading dirty energy lobbying operation that denied even its own lobbying status . Similarly, Fox News ran an op-ed by Betsy McCaughey, "a former lieutenant governor of New York and chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths." According to its latest tax filing , CRID received $37,716 in the Covid-19 Paycheck Protection Program to cover its single paid employee, Betsy McCaughey, who earned $118,800 in 2020, a year in which the organization received $377,269 in contributions. What does CRID even do, you ask? Well, it produces a whole lot of rabidly partisan disinfo-filled op-eds . Case in point, McCaughey Fox op-ed is headlined, “ Climate crazies want to use schools to brainwash your kids with this radical agenda .” What's so radical about the agenda? "Lessons link urban heat islands to tree placement inequities, redlining and racism." Oh no! Not the truth! But in true science denier fashion, McCaughey argues, "the scientific community is divided about the urgency of eliminating fossil fuels" and cites a poll claiming that 41% of "400 geologists, climatologists, meteorologists and other scientists" don't think climate change will cause significant harm in our lifetimes. McCaughey doesn't actually link to the "poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University." That’s probably because, as Glenn Branch pointed out in DeSmog last year , "the survey report reveals that 96% of the respondents to the Heartland-commissioned survey accept that global climate change is occurring." Oh! So it's not a University survey; it's a Heartland product. You know, the think tank run by climate denying nuts that only finally apparently deleted its smoking page in the months after we last pointed it out earlier this year. McCaughey claims teaching kids about climate change is "child abuse" and the best piece of evidence she can cite to back up her false claim undermining the science is a survey that actually confirmed the scientific consensus on climate change! McCaughey's "radical agenda" is, it turns out, simply reality. Even according to her own source! [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/11/2192654/-Learning-Science-Apparently-A-Radical-Agenda-When-It-Comes-To-Climate-Change Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/