Political leftists argue Congress was wrong to eliminate federal subsidies for far-left National Public Radio (NPR) because NPR distributes most of its funding to state public radio outlets. There is no reason to punish state public radio outlets for the sins of the parent, leftists argue. Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR), however, just illustrated how the state public radio outlets are just as biased and deserving of funding cuts as NPR.
WPR published a July 23 article titled, “As heat rises in Wisconsin, new analysis finds heat streaks are becoming more common.”
The article presents the claims of a paper published by the climate activist group Climate Central without critical examination. Instead of acknowledging that Climate Central is a climate activist group with an agenda, WPR attempts to conceal Climate Central’s biased perspective and agenda by referring to it merely as a “nonprofit group.”
Throughout the article, WPR provides alarmist quotes from a Climate Central staffer, declines to interview anybody else with a different perspective, presents Climate Central’s assertions as if they were uncontroverted facts, and then makes its own stand-alone false claims about a climate crisis.
WPR’s article is one-sided, factually inaccurate, leftist fake news.
For example, WPR uncritically presents Climate Central’s assertion that 80 percent of American cities, including Milwaukee, are experiencing more “heat streaks” than was the case in 1970.
WPR, however, fails to mention that cities like Milwaukee serve as heat islands. As city populations grow and as people utilize more machinery, city temperatures increase even when surrounding temperatures do not. Milwaukee’s population has grown nearly 20 percent since 1970, and people utilize much more machinery than 50 years ago. This almost certainly accounts for any asserted increase in Milwaukee “heat streaks.”
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), however, keeps detailed temperature data for the state of Wisconsin. NOAA data show no increase in Wisconsin summer temperatures or extreme heat frequency, directly contradicting the narratives of Climate Central and WPR.
NOAA data show a substantial decrease in the number of “very hot days” with temperatures exceeding 95 degrees.
Similarly, NOAA data show a substantial decrease in the number of “warm” summer nights with temperatures not falling below 70 degrees.
Boom! Actual data destroy the entire premise of Climate Central's claims and the WPR article.
The actual data would have been quite easy for WPR to find if it had any desire to engage in objective reporting or even fact-check climate-activist propaganda. WPR could also have learned the truth by interviewing anybody with an objective point of view, rather than merely a staffer for the climate activist group making the bogus heat claims.
WPR took the scam a step further, however, by presenting additional false climate assertions of its own as if they were facts.
For example, WPR asserts “Extreme heat is the No. 1 weather-related killer in the nation.” This is not just wrong, it is spectacularly wrong. A peer-reviewed study in the prominent medical science journal Lancet, for example, reports cold kills nearly 20 times more people globally each year than heat, including in the United States.
WPR makes up a scary-sounding claim, provides no factual citation to support it, and then misleads its audience into believing false facts about an asserted climate crisis.
No wonder Congress is stripping NPR and state public radio funding.
The facts are that Wisconsin is experiencing a decline rather than an increase in the frequency of severe summer heat, cold continues to kill far more people than heat in Wisconsin and elsewhere, and the whole NPR/state public radio complex is politically biased and corrupted to the core.
James Taylor (JTaylor@heartland.org) is President of The Heartland Institute.
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