Posted By Marc Morano – 3:33 PM EST – Marc_Morano@EPW.Senate.Gov
New York Times Makes Factual Blunder
Paper erroneously claims Senate last voted on global warming bill in 2003
A New York Times editorial today arguing in favor of the Senate’s upcoming mandatory global warming cap-and-trade legislation committed a blatant factual error.
The May 28 Times editorial titled "The Senate’s Chance on Warming," incorrectly claimed, “The Senate last addressed climate change in 2003 when it cast 43 votes in favor of a bill sponsored by Mr. McCain and Mr. Lieberman.” (LINK)
In their apparently hasty Google search of Senate history, the editors at the Times failed to report that the “Senate last addressed” global warming legislation in 2005 under the McCain-Lieberman bill.
Perhaps the Times would rather forget about the 2005 bill since it was handily defeated in June by a vote of 60-38, an even larger margin than the 2003 vote (55-43). [See: LINK ]
The editors at the Times should be even more ashamed for today’s error since they wrote at least one editorial about the 2005 bill. [See: NYT: Feeling the Heat - June 14, 2005 - LINK ]
Is the Times so disinterested or discouraged about the prospects of a global warming cap-and-trade bill that it does not even bother to conduct a simple fact check regarding the last Senate global warming vote? Or are the paper’s financial woes forcing cutbacks in basic research?
A simple search of their own editorial archives would have enlightened the editors and avoided their mistake.
Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), then chairman of the Environment & Public Works Committee (now Ranking Member), declared on June 22, 2005, “The Senate’s sound rejection of mandatory carbon caps is a victory for American families and businesses large and small. With the addition of five votes against the measure beyond the previous 43-55 vote in 2003, the momentum is clearly moving against mandatory caps.” (See: Inhofe Applauds Senate’s Sound Rejection of Mandatory Caps on Carbon Dioxide Emissions – June 22, 2005 - LINK)
This is not the first time the New York Times has made embarrassing factual errors.
The award-winning Inhofe EPW Press Blog has consistently been called to act as the ombudsman of the fourth estate and this New York Times editorial correction has fallen once again on our shoulders.
As of 3:30 PM EST today, the New York Times had not yet issued a correction for their error.
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Related Links:
Link to Lieberman-Warner White Paper
Link to Lieberman-Warner Climate Bill Exposed Webpage
EIA’s Analysis of Lieberman-Warner Reveals Massive Economic Pain
Inhofe Praises President Bush for Rejecting Lieberman-Warner Bill
Democrats Face ‘Ferocious Infighting’ Over Global Warming Legislation
Inhofe Statement on EPA’s Analysis of Lieberman-Warner
1.8 MILLION JOBS MAY BE LOST BY 2020, NEW STUDY SAYS
Boxer Waves White Flag on Lieberman-Warner Climate Bill
Are House Dems' climate bill efforts on track, or off the rails? – Greenwire - 03/10/2008
Los Angeles Times editorial Strips bare the rhetoric and reality about cap-and-trade legislation
New CBO Study Further Exposes Cap-and-Trade Flaws
Lieberman-Warner Climate Bill 'Running into Resistance'
Senator Bond’s Diagram of New Bureaucracy Required by Lieberman-Warner
Look Closer at Global Warming ‘Solutions’
LIEBERMAN-WARNER GLOBAL WARMING BILL LOSING MOMENTUM
NEW ANALYSIS: CARBON MANDATE WOULD HARM CONSUMERS, JOBS AND ECONOMY
Watch the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's new TV 30 Second ad opposing the Lieberman-Warner bill
ANALYSIS CITED BY BOXER INCLUDES HUGE NUCLEAR ENERGY GAINS, DESPITE HER STAUNCH OPPOSITION TO NUCLEAR ENERGY
Boxer's Rejection of More Time for Climate Bill Rings False
CBO Warns that Cap-And-Trade Approach Could Create ‘Windfall' Profits & Harm Poor
Washington Times Editorial says Lieberman-Warner Bill equals 'pie-in-the-sky requirements for cutting greenhouse gases by unattainable amounts'
Lieberman-Warner will lead to ‘higher energy prices, lost jobs and reduced GDP'
Climate Bills Will 'Require a Wholesale Transformation of the Nation's Economy and Society'
Lieberman-Warner Climate Bill Meets Resistance from Unexpected Sources
Climate Bill Will Cost ‘Hundreds of Billions of Dollars' - Lieberman Concedes
INHOFE SLAMS NEW CAP-AND-TRADE BILL AS ALL ‘ECONOMIC PAIN FOR NO CLIMATE GAIN'
SENATOR INHOFE OPENING STATEMENT AT SUBCOMMITTEE ON GLOBAL WARMING
Senator Inhofe Exposes Costly Global Warming 'Solutions'
INHOFE, BOXER DEBATE GLOBAL WARMING ON SENATE FLOOR
Cutting Emissions May Cost U.S. Economy Up to $1.8 Trillion
Senators Propose $4500 Climate Tax on American Families
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