Climategate Debunked, Media Pounces on ... McRib?

When climate scientists were accused of massaging data in 2009, cable news networks pounced on the "Climategate" story, offering up a slew of talking heads to declare global warming a hoax, Jon Stewart noted last night. A new independent study, however—funded in part by none other than the Koch brothers—has confirmed that climate change is very real, and the Daily Show host wonders where the networks are.

Physicist Richard Muller, formerly a leading skeptic, led the project and declared "global warming is real" in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Stewart noted. "Climategate was a huge story," he said. "I bet debunking Climategate is going to be huger!" Turning to cable news coverage, however, he found that the networks had devoted a total of 24 seconds to the story—and infinitely more time to the return of the McRib. (More Jon Stewart stories.)