International Media Bias

People have been arguing about the media's bias and the impact on politics a lot this year, particularly in conjunction with the election. Here are three articles about the same issue.

First, the European (BBC) take:

Delegates at the UN climate change conference in Buenos Aires have reached agreement on ways to address the issue of global warming.

They approved a compromise proposal on the format of future discussions agreed by the US and the EU overnight.

Now, the liberal American (CNN/Reuters) take:

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) -- U.N. talks on climate change ended early Saturday with few steps forward as the United States, oil producers and developing giants slammed the brakes on the European Union's drive for deeper emissions cuts to stop global warming.

Although negotiators said they brokered an 11th-hour agreement on two items, the EU made it clear that the deal fell short of its goal to get talks rolling for after 2012, when the Kyoto protocol to cut greenhouse gases runs out.

And now the conservative American (TCS) take:

BUENOS AIRES -- The Kyoto Protocol is dead -- there will be no further global treaties that set binding limits on the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) after Kyoto runs out in 2012.

Under the Kyoto Protocol industrialized countries are supposed to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases 5.2% below their 1990 emissions levels during the first commitment period which runs from 2008-2012. The European Union agreed to reduce its overall GHG emissions by 8% during that period. To cut its carbon emissions, the European Union has established a carbon trading scheme in which companies must purchase permits to emit carbon. The number of carbon permits is capped at 8% below 1990 emission levels. The European Union and environmentalist activists have been pushing for negotiations to establish more stringent emissions limits for a second commitment period after 2012. It's not going to happen.

So we have the Europeans claiming a victory because there was agreement on the format of future talks in which the EU will try to force economy-strangling emissions limitations down the throats of everyone else, the American liberal media acknowledges that nothing was accomplished, and the American conservative press deemed the (ludicrous) Kyoto Protocol dead.

This is just a demonstration for everyone that there is, in fact, bias in the media. If you're reading the news, know your source, know their bias, and interpret accordingly.

For what it's worth, I'm glad that countries like the United States, China, and India are refusing to be bullied by junk science. The Kyoto Protocol is lunacy disguised as responsible policy, and it's time it died.

On a related note, Tech Central Station also has an article about the increasing acceptability of climate science skepticism in the European scientific community.