Action to Reject Climate Denial in Newspaper Letters

Posted on October 15, 2013 in CCL News

Ask newspapers to follow LA Times’ lead to reject letters that deny climate science

The LA Times has instituted a policy whereby they no longer publish letters from climate change deniers when those letters contain statements that are factually incorrect, such as “there’s no sign humans have caused climate change.” There’s an article on the Times’ site from the letters editor explaining the policy.
This presents an opportunity to request that other newspapers adopt a similar policy.
You can leverage the LA Times policy by contacting your newspaper’s editorial page editor and asking them to adopt a similar policy. Here’s a suggested letter:

Hi,

This is [YOUR NAME] in [YOUR CITY]. I’d like to call your attention to a new policy at the LA Times, whereby they will no longer publish letters disputing the science of climate change when those letters contain statements that are factually incorrect. Their letters editor explains the policy in this article:

On letters from climate-change deniers

I share this with you in the hope that the [NEWSPAPER NAME] will adopt a similar policy. The newspaper has the responsibility to present accurate information to the public. When inaccurate information is presented as fact, even in a letter to the editor, the newspaper is doing a disservice to the community. Such misinformation confuses the public about the need to be addressing climate change, contributing to the current stalemate to enact effective policies.

It’s one thing for someone to express an opinion — “I don’t believe humans are causing climate change” — but it’s another to make such statements as fact — “There’s no sign humans have caused climate change.” When such statements are presented as facts, the newspaper has the responsibility to reject them.

We do not see letters published asserting that we didn’t land on the moon, or that tobacco smoking is not linked to lung cancer. It’s my hope that soon we will no longer see climate denier letters published in newspapers. Thank you so much for your consideration.

NAME

PHONE

 

In most cases, you’ll find the editorial page editor on the newspaper’s “contact us” page.

For social media

Here is a meme thanking the LA Times that  you can post on your Facebook page:
meme_LA_Times_Thank_You
If you are on Twitter, look up the names of the editorial page editor, the managing editor and the editor of the newspaper and see if they have Twitter accounts. If they do, tweet them directly with the following. You’ll need to fill in places that are all caps. The url is a shortened address for the LA Times article:

Hey, [EDITOR’S TWITTER HANDLE], LATimes no longer prints #climate denier letters; what about the [NAME OF PAPER]? http://ow.ly/pH3zB

 

Steve Valk
Steve Valk is Communications Coordinator for Citizens' Climate Lobby. Steve joined the CCL staff in 2009 after a 30-year career with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.