Lazy journalism and the both sides fallacy – Ed Lotterman edition

A classic example of the lazy journalism of false equivalency …

Edward Lotterman – Real World Economics – Pioneer Press (TwinCities.com)

… Unlike in most other industrialized nations, U.S. citizens remain divided on whether climate change is really occurring. Indeed, the proportion that is skeptical is growing rather than shrinking…

…This is not a lack of consensus, but rather a fundamental division that is not likely to be solved in the foreseeable future. For significant portions of both camps, it has become a matter of faith rather than reason…

When one camp is aligned with the overwhelming majority of the peer reviewed and respected scientific literature, and the other camp is not, this is not a “matter of faith rather than reason”.

One camp is on the side of reason, the other camp is faith-based.

This is, at best, a lazy invocation of the easy cliché. Most likely, it’s intellectual cowardice.