Coding the Wilting Climate Change Debate

It seemed to me upon reading the article the first time that Plumer used a lot of sourcing in a very offhand manner with links that usually were not explained.  So, for this assignment, I decided to code two different things concerning the stories that were linked in the paper: their timeliness (when they were published) and their potential bias (whether or not the website it was published on stated up front that it had an axe to grind in the climate battle).  I found that out of the nine links used, three were for material that was over eight months old - a negative in my mind considering the article is about the ever-changing climate debate, and three were from websites that were clearly labeled as having pro-climate change tendencies.  It further confirmed my initial skepticism - when a third of your sources are dated and a third are biased, I don't see why your story should be taken as balanced.

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