Count everyone's favorite astronomer, Neil deGrasse Tyson, among the list of people who think the media should stop giving equal time to climate change deniers and their ilk.
The issue has been in the news recently, thanks to a rare flare-up of coverage of climate change. Some of that coverage was criticized for setting up the issue of climate change as a debate.
Tyson was speaking to CNN about his new series, "Cosmos," on Sunday. "Reliable Sources" host Brian Stelter asked him about the media's coverage of climate change and other science issues.
Tyson was emphatic in his response:
I think the media has to sort of come out of this ethos that I think was in principle a good one, but doesn't really apply in science. The ethos was, whatever story you give, you have to give the opposing view, and then you can be viewed as balanced...you don't talk about the spherical earth with NASA and then say let's give equal time to the flat-earthers.
Plus, science is not there for you to cherry pick. You know, I said this once and it's gotten a lot of Internet play, I said the good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.
I guess you can decide whether or not to believe in it, but that doesn't change the reality of an emergent scientific truth.