Debunking Insultingly Bias Wyoming Public Media Article

Recently Wyoming Public Media posted a story posted a story titled:

In Wyoming, climate change denial and funding for climate-related projects show different stories.

Just looking at that title I knew the story would be filled with bias and flawed assumptions.

So, I decided to fact-check it.

Let's classify this WPM story properly. It's not news. It's an opinion piece that they are trying to sell as news.

All we have to do is look at the first few paragraphs of their story.

Climate change denial and anti-federal government sentiment are popular talking points in Wyoming as of late.

 

First, there is no such thing as a "climate denier" or even "climate change denialism." Everybody knows that the climate is changing.

WHY it is changing is where the debate lies.

Is it all natural? Man-made and natural? All man-made?

Most scientists agree that it is mostly natural. Humans do have an impact but it is not as much as is reported by media and climate change protestors.

The line "are popular talking points in Wyoming as of late" is also faulty. These objections have been ongoing for many decades.

However, data on federal dollars earmarked for climate-related projects in the state show another story.

This is where WPM draws faults conclusions.

A new report shows the federal government awarded over a hundred billion dollars to climate-related projects last year. Wyoming is top of the list for most money received per capita at about $2 billion.

“Well over $3,000 per resident, when you divide that number amongst all the folks living in Wyoming,” said Annabelle Rosser, a policy analyst with Atlas Public Policy – a data compiling group that put together the report.

HOLD ON!

Are Wyoming residents receiving "well over $3000 per resident?"

NO!

Most of the money goes to out-of-state companies that choose to build projects in Wyoming.

Most of the money is going to the nuclear power plant project in Kemmerer that just broke ground, but also 80 other projects, including carbon storage and rooftop solar programs.

Thank you Wyoming Public Media for proving my point with that last line.

“Wyoming has all these really significant investments in a clean energy economy,” Rosser said. “Maybe despite an uptick in climate denialism.”

Most of these "investments" have not come from Wyoming, but from state companies working in Wyoming. Also, the federal government is dumping huge subsidies in the state through mostly out-of-state companies.

As I showed at the beginning of this article, there is no such thing as "climate denialsm" and there has not been an "uptick" in it.

What we have here are people at Wyoming Public Media who live and work in an echo chamber and seem to believe that most people think as they do.

Wyoming Public Media has not been listening to alternative points of view.

They really never do.

They have no idea what folks out there think or why they think it.

The article goes on but it just gets worse.

If WPM wants to objectively serve the people they should spend more time listening and learning what the public thinks and why.