Media retreats: AP issues ‘clarification’ on ‘hottest year story’: Now concedes claim ‘falls within a margin of error that lessens the certainty’
AP's Seth Borenstein walks media claims back: 'The story also reported that 2014 was the hottest year on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA, but did not include the caveat that other recent years had average temperatures that were almost as high — and they all fall within a margin of error that lessens the certainty that any one of the years was the hottest.'
Climate Depot Note: AP is finally conceding that the narrative of the 2014 being the 'hottest year' not only violated scientific methods, but also made a mockery of journalistic ethics. Climate Depot kept up the pressure on the media.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a story Jan. 16, The Associated Press reported that the odds that nine of the 10 hottest years have occurred since 2000 are about 650 million to one. These calculations, as the story noted, treated as equal the possibility of any given year in the records being one of the hottest. The story should have included the fact that substantial warming in the years just prior to this century could make it more likely that the years since were warmer, because high temperatures tend to persist.
