Liberal Media Bias: Reuters on the Resignation of U.N. Climate Chief

Well well well. This intriguing story was at the top of Drudge this morning:

U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer to step down in July
Reuters Thursday, February 18, 2010; 6:44 AM

LONDON (Reuters) - The U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer has resigned to join a consultancy group as an adviser, the U.N. climate secretariat said on Thursday, two months after a disappointing Copenhagen summit.

De Boer will step down on July 1 to join KPMG, the U.N. framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC) said in a statement. He has led the agency since 2006.

“It was a difficult decision to make, but I believe the time is ripe for me to take on a new challenge, working on climate and sustainability with the private sector and academia,” de Boer said in the statement.

“Copenhagen did not provide us with a clear agreement in legal terms, but the political commitment and sense of direction toward a low-emissions world are overwhelming. This calls for new partnerships with the business sector and I now have the chance to help make this happen,” he added.

(Reporting by Michael Szabo and Gerard Wynn, Editing by Alison Williams)

At first glance, this appears to be a straight objective news story (with the possible exception of the use of the word “disappointing”). 

Here’s the problem: there’s a lot left out. First and foremost, there’s no mention at all of the scandals that have plagued the U.N. IPCC over the past several months. Do the writers of this piece actually expect readers to believe that this influenced de Boer’s decision to jump off his sinking ship while he had the chance? Surely that would be water-cooler material.

The piece also doesn’t say much about de Boer himself. As I coincidentally posted the other day, on November 12, 2007 he said: 

Failing to recognize the urgency of [catastrophic man-made global warming] and act on it would be nothing less that criminally irresponsible.

Now that the “science” of AGW is melting faster than a Himalayan glacier, I wonder if de Boer is worried about being held criminally irresponsible for something … But the writers of this Reuters piece sure don’t. 

You think if this were the right-leaning leader of a right-leaning organization, such juicy—but essential—details would be left out of a news story? Me neither.

This is what you call media bias by omission.