Before Hurricane Harvey even made landfall in Texas, Fox News was already whining about its coverage on CNN. In this case, the poutrage was over a CNN host daring to ask about the effect of climate change on the storm's intense rainfall.
The whining began with cohost Lisa Boothe: “You could see this coming. CNN didn’t wait long to bring up climate chance in its Hurricane Harvey coverage.”
A clip was played of CNN’s John Berman asking Bill Read, former director of National Hurricane Center, whether the intensity of the rain expected was connected to climate change. Read did not want to make that conclusion: “This is not an uncommon occurrence to see storms grow and intensify rapidly in the western Gulf of Mexico,” he said.
Boothe groused again, this time to the lone liberal co-host, Juan Williams: “Juan, why is CNN using a crisis like this to drive a political narrative?”
Williams ignored how Fox was politicizing the storm under cover of playing the victim. He even helped the messaging by saying it’s premature to blame climate change.
Fox reinforced its own politicization with a ridiculous lower-third banner: “CNN USES DANGEROUS STORM THREATENING AMERICANS TO ADVANCE LEFTIST AGENDA.”
Next up was co-host Jesse Watters. He snarked, “I’m surprised CNN is not blaming the storm on racism … or Russia. If the storm was named 'Robert,' they’d probably have to make a little name change there.”
Boothe had no complaint, though, with that politicization. In fact, she suggested the “or Russia” before Watters repeated it.
Watters then played the role of a climate expert (despite lacking a single credential): “Hurricanes have been happening since the beginning of time. There was no Industrial Revolution hundreds of years before when they were having hurricanes," He opined, ignoring the fact that it's the increase in intensity of hurricanes, not their existence, that experts blame on climate change.
"So they haven’t had one for the last, almost decade, like this and Obama was president. So I don’t know if it’s fair to blame global warming on these things." FNC expert Watters continued. "These things just happen. It’s called the weather."
Boothe called it “particularly cheap” to talk about climate change given the fact a lot of lives are at risk in Texas. She lectured CNN that it should be informing viewers instead. As if Fox was informing anyone in this segment.
Cohost Kimberly Guilfoyle piled on: “They’re never gonna miss an opportunity to be politically opportunistic,” she said without a trace of irony. Then she put on her own credential-free, climate-expert hat: “We haven’t had a major hurricane hit the United States in twelve years so their theory isn’t really holding up.”
Watch the hypocritical attacks on CNN above, from the August 25, 2017 The Five.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
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