Reuters’ climate change coverage declined after Ingrassia became ME

A Media Matters for America study finds that Reuters‘ coverage of climate change declined by nearly 50 percent under the regime of current managing editor Paul Ingrassia, lending credence to former reporter David RFgarty‘s claim that a “climate of fear” has gripped the agency.

Max Greenberg of Media Matters writes, “In line with claims from Fogarty and The Baron, a survey of coverage in the six months immediately prior to Ingrassia’s appointment compared to an analogous period in 2012 found that Reuters filed 48 percent fewer articles on climate change under the new regime, despite the fact that the latter period featured the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, a continuing fight over the European Union’s proposal to impose a carbon tax on international flights, record heat in the U.S. and other noteworthy developments.

“In the six months before Ingrassia joined Reuters, Fogarty wrote 51 of 675 total articles on climate change (about 8 percent). During a comparable period under Ingrassia, Fogarty wrote only 10 articles on climate change (3 percent of 353 total stories).

“The vast majority of coverage in both time periods was focused on policy (59 percent and 63 percent, respectively), as opposed to science (11 percent and 12 percent) and primarily quoted politicians, political officials or government officials (43 percent and 41 percent) on climate change.

“This year, Reuters’ shift has apparently continued apace. An April 2013 article titled ‘Climate scientists struggle to explain warming slowdown,’ later promoted by Drudge Report, claimed that short-term temperature variability ‘has exposed gaps’ in scientists’ understanding of climate change, but neglected to quote any scientists on the issue — or refer to an article filed by the same reporter one week prior, which explained some of the alleged ‘gaps.'”

Read more here. Reuters issued a statement last week about the claims of a decline in climate change coverage that stated: “Reuters is committed to providing fair and independent coverage of climate change that complies fully with our Trust Principles. Reuters has a number of staff dedicated to covering this story, including a team of specialist reporters at Point Carbon and a columnist. There has been no change in our editorial policy.”