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Reuters Fails Press Test – Again – Do You Stand Out for That?


Kip Hansen’s opinion – June 17, 2022

Reuters is one of the largest news organizations in the world. It is considered a trusted news source and is often cited by other news agencies – ubiquitous “according to ReutersTag line ”. Back in 2013, Reuters was attacked by Joe Romm and Stefan Rahmstorf notorious for writing well-balanced climate stories. [ source ] Those two critics can now rest assured, Reuters To be fully engaged with climate change crisis reporting gigs.

How much penetration? Reuters are there in the news world today? Here is a small example using this climate alarm story from Reuters:

In the hottest city on Earth, mothers bear the brunt of climate change via Charlotte Greenfield and Gloria Dickie

To test penetration, a simple web search on the title of the paper reveals: over 1,600,000 hits with first three pages Google Search results showing news outlets copied and pasted reprints Reuters original story, plus hundreds of other stories rewrites and quotes Reuters. One newspaper used the slogan “climate change is killing women”.

This is Reuters lede:

“JACOBABAD, Pakistan, June 14 (Reuters) – The heavily pregnant Sonari darted through the scorching sun in a field dotted with golden melons in Jacobabad, which last month had turned into a hot city. best on Earth.

Ms Waderi’s 17-year-old neighbour, who gave birth a few weeks ago, is returning to work in conditions that could exceed 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), with her newborn lying on a bed blanket in the shade nearby so she could feed him when he was. cries.

Sonari, who is in her 20s, said: “When the heat is coming and we are pregnant, we feel stressed.

These women in southern Pakistan and millions of them around the world are on the edge of climate change. ” [ original story link – repeated ]

If we did a Fact Check – i.e. actually check the statements in the paper to see if they are true – we would have a few surprises.

1. “… .Jacobabad, last month became the hottest city on Earth.” Jacobadad was very hot – even by Pakistani standards. But claimed to be “the hottest city on Earth”? Using Duck-Duck-Go and Yahoo! search, the first half a dozen websites listed “the most fascinating cities on Earth”, no list Jacobadad in the top 10. In fact, the quote about “hottest city on Earth” was a self-referential Reuters source in the same article: “…on May 14, the daytime temperature in Jacobabad reached 51 degrees Celsius, making it the hottest city in the world at that time. ”

What is the “hottest city on earth” really? Triple A (AAA) say it’s Ahvaz, Iran with an Average High of 116 degrees F (46.6°C) and a Record High of 129 degrees F (53.8°C). Probably…. Ahvaz is mentioned in some lists, but not all.

2. “These women in southern Pakistan and millions of people like them around the world are on the edge of climate change. ” Is the climate changing in Jacobadad? Even if it’s not “the hottest city in the world”, it has hotter there now compared to before?

No, it’s that simple. It’s no hotter there now than in the past.

From the most beautiful records, it seems that Jacobadad is always hot, hot and hot. This is the 30-year average. The hottest days of June medium around 120°F – that means it’s hotter than half that time on the hottest days of June. Being super hot in Jacobadad is theirs normal climatefrom April to October every year.

Don’t like “modeled” temperature graphs? Then take a look at the histogram pulled from the NOAA data:

Interestingly, the daily highs in summer are literally “off the chart”, from April to September, dropping to a Comfort High of more than 80 (31°C) in the depths of winter. Curiously, at just 28°N and at less than 200 feet (60 meters), the daily lows during the winter months are almost freezing.

Reuters‘Reporters add in the death of a woman, only to give emotional weight to their barely factual story:

“Nazi, a 5-year-old young mother, is preparing lunch for visiting cousins. But with no air conditioning or a fan in her kitchen, she collapsed and was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead from a suspected stroke.

County health officials did not respond to requests for comment regarding Jacobabad’s record of heat-related deaths in recent years, or more specifically on Nazia’s case.

Of course, they don’t know if the woman died of heat or a heart attack or complications from her last delivery.

This is not journalism, this is propaganda that uses forced emotions – and ignoring all those nasty aspects of a reporter’s job, like actually checking facts, writing stories complete, presenting a problem from many sides.

The real horror of this story isn’t that it’s HOT in Jacobadad – it’s been in the summer for months on end. The story is that the people of Pakistan are so poor, with little access to simple reliable electricity, that their homes and kitchens do not have even an electric fan.

It is true that the poor suffer even more when extreme weather conditions, extreme climates, storms or floods come or sudden high and low temperatures. It is not a matter of climate change, but of extreme poverty that has been allowed to persist while the rest of the world progresses. India and Pakistan have had a literate civilization much older than Europe and North America – but still suffer from near-prehistoric poverty. And Davos the crowd turned to look away… ..

Reuters does not specify how poor these people are, but then promotes action against climate change as a solution: “future climate change policies are needed to address specific needs.” female body”.

Reuters should tell the real story.

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Author’s comment:

In recent times, I have personally faced extreme poverty in the Dominican Republic (DR) – especially among Haitian immigrants, many of whom do not even possess their personal identities. himself – no birth certificate or other official proof of existence. My teenage son, who was traveling with us at the time, visited a Haitian batey to his school and commented, “But dad, these people have nothing! … really, nothing!” And it’s true.

In DR, rural people still cook on wood or charcoal stoves in their homes. Like they do the same in Pakistan and many other places. I’ve had many meals in such homes – hot, often smoky, and these houses are some of the friendliest I’ve been to.

And, yes, when natural disasters strike, it is the poor who suffer the most – when they have nothing, it is very easy for them to lose everything.

Thanks for reading.

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