{"id":20313,"date":"2026-02-08T10:18:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T18:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/?p=20313"},"modified":"2026-02-27T05:53:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T13:53:26","slug":"climate-seattle-times-makes-up-their-climate-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/2026\/02\/08\/climate-seattle-times-makes-up-their-climate-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Media: Atmospheric Scientist says the Seattle Times Makes Up Climate News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Comments from Prof. Cliff Mass at the University of Washington: <a href=\"https:\/\/cliffmass.blogspot.com\/2026\/02\/misinformation-in-seattle-times-anount.html?m=1\">Cliff Mass Weather Blog: Misinformation in the Seattle TImes About Drought, Snowpack, and Climate Change<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>It is frustrating to read stories by the ClimateLab folks in the Seattle Times that are simply not true.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another story was published yesterday that predicts a major drought year ahead due to poor snowpack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A poor snowpack driven by climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The problem:&nbsp; &nbsp;their claims are easily shown to be false<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>None of the Seattle Times <a href=\"http:\/\/[About Climate Lab | The Seattle Times](https:\/\/www.seattletimes.com\/about-climate-lab\/#meet-our-team)\">&#8220;ClimateLab&#8221; staff<\/a> has a STEM degree. They are &#8220;story tellers&#8221; and do not understand how to think like a hydrologist, or meteorologist or atmospheric scientist, such that the story tellers get the story wrong. Why mass media is often wrong here: <a href=\"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/2023\/11\/06\/media-who-reports-the-news\/\">Media: Who Reports the News? \u2013 Social Panic<\/a> &#8211; 80% of reporters have degrees in the humanities, arts, social sciences &#8211; but are given titles such as &#8220;Senior Health Reporter&#8221;, &#8220;Senior Climate Reporter&#8221;, and so on. Only in the business section do we find reporters with degrees in business, economics or finance, and most weather reporters have at least a degree in broadcast meteorology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why do other subjects not require formal training?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Seattle Times &#8220;ClimateLab&#8221;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/conrad-swanson\/\">Conrad Swanson<\/a><\/strong>, degree in journalism and economics, <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/[(26) Amanda Zhou | LinkedIn](https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/amanda-c-zhou\/)\">Amanda Zhou<\/a><\/strong>, attended the elite, Phillips Exeter Academy private school, then a degree in social sciences and public policy from Dartmouth.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Isabella Breda<\/strong>, she has no online bio except this &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/[Get to Know Reporter Isabella Breda | HeraldNet.com](https:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/news\/isabella-breda\/)\">Her interests include growth and development, environmental issues, social justice and education<\/a>.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/[(26) Erika Schultz | LinkedIn](https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/erika-schultz-77900655\/)\">Erika Schultz<\/a><\/strong>, a visual story teller with a degree in photojournalism.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/[(26) Benjamin Woodard | LinkedIn](https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/benjaminallenwoodard\/)\">Benjamin Woodard<\/a><\/strong>, environment and climate editor, degree in visual journalism.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>None have any formal training in STEM &#8211; yet they are &#8220;The Climate Lab&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An entire team of reporters at the Seattle Times &#8220;ClimateLab&#8221; and none have a degree in a STEM subject. They are all &#8220;story tellers&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,29,352],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-communications","category-media","category-misinformation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20492,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20313\/revisions\/20492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}