FOXLEAKS

After releasing leaked emails last week showing Fox News' Bill Sammon directing staff not to use the phrase "public option," Media Matters for America today released yet another email from Sammon, this one questioning
the "veracity of climate change data" and ordering the network's
journalists to "refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or
cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such
theories are based upon data that critics have called into question."

"It's not just health care," said Ari Rabin-Havt, Executive Vice President at Media Matters for America. "This
latest email shows that on every issue, Fox News will sacrifice
journalistic integrity in order to spin and shape the public debate to
favor conservatives."

BACKGROUND

On
December 8, in the midst of global climate change talks, Fox White
House correspondent Wendell Goler delivered a live report from
Copenhagen and was asked by host Jon Scott about "U.N. scientists
issuing a new report today saying this decade is on track to be the
warmest on record."

Goler
accurately reported that, indeed, 2000-2009 was "expected to turn out
to be the warmest decade on record," following a "trend that has
scientists concerned because 2000-2009 was warmer than the 1990s, which
were warmer than the 1980s." Goler went on to explain that "ironically
2009 was a cooler than average year in the U.S. and Canada," which, he
said, was "politically troubling because Americans are among the most
skeptical about global warming."

Less than 15 minutes after the segment, Sammon sent the following email to the staffs of Special Report, Fox News Sunday,
and FoxNews.com, as well as to other reporters, producers, and network
executives, instructing them to "IMMEDIATELY" include objections of
"critics" when reporting on climate data:

From: Sammon, Bill
To: 169 -SPECIAL REPORT; 036 -FOX.WHU; 054 -FNSunday; 030 -Root
(FoxNews.Com); 050 -Senior Producers; 051 -Producers; 069 -Politics;
005 -Washington
Cc: Clemente, Michael; Stack, John; Wallace, Jay; Smith, Sean
Sent: Tue Dec 08 12:49:51 2009
Subject: Given the controversy over the veracity of climate change data...

...we
should refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in
any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories
are based upon data that critics have called into question. It is not
our place as journalists to assert such notions as facts, especially as
this debate intensifies.

That night's Special Report with Bret Baier featured
another report by Goler on the Copenhagen conference, featuring a clip
of Michel Jarraud of the World Meteorological Association explaining the
recent finding that 2000-2009 "is likely to be the warmest on the
record."

Appearing
to echo Sammon's orders, Goler immediately followed this by saying that
"skeptics say the recordkeeping began about the time a cold period was
ending in the mid 1800s and what looks like an increase may just be part
of a longer cycle."

The release of this Sammon email comes after Media Matters published
an email sent by Sammon to Fox journalists at the peak of the health
care reform debate, ordering them to avoid using the term "public
option" and instead use variations of "government option." That email
echoed advice from a prominent Republican pollster on how to help turn
public opinion against health care reform. Sammon confirmed the email's authenticity to The Daily Beast's
Howard Kurtz, saying "I have no idea what the Republicans were pushing
or not. It's simply an accurate, fair, objective term."

Media Matters also announced that it was creating an email address, whistleblower@mediamatters.org, where Fox News employees can anonymously send examples of the network's complete disregard for journalism.