Bias Regarding Albertas Opposition of Ottawas Planned Ratification of the Kyoto Treaty
Brian Bergman and Mike Byfield comment on Albertas opposition of Ottawas planned ratification of the Kyoto treaty. In his article "A Gathering Storm over Kyoto", Bergman maintains a balanced presentation of Albertas opposition. Byfield however, achieves a favourable slant regarding this issue through the techniques of selection, emphasis, and charged language. ... Bergman in "A Gathering Storm over Kyoto" achieves his balanced presentation by including facts that both support Kyoto and support the opposition to Kyoto. He takes quotes from Lorne Taylor, a Kyoto opposer, to give support to the favourable side. "Kyoto will do nothing to improve the environment" and "will actually hinder efforts to rein in global warming by wreaking havoc on Canadas economy…" (Bergman 20). By including these lines, the reader gets a sense of Bergman favouring opposition to the accord because these statements do not support it. The Kyoto accords purpose is to help the environment so by saying it will not improve it, an opposing tone is observed. Another statement Bergman makes showing a favoured view towards Albertas opposition is "Kyoto will cost Canada up to $40 billion in economic growth and at least 450,000 jobs by 2010" (Bergman 20). ... Therefore, Kyoto is looked upon unfavourably and the opposition to it is favoured. In contrast to these statements, Bergman includes unfavourable statements regarding Albertas opposition to Kyoto. He brings up the statistic that "72 per cent of Albertans favoured ratifying Kyoto" and by doing so, questions Albertas opposition (Bergman 21). If most of Alberta favours Kyoto then the opposition is not a majority and the accord opposition goes against the idea of our democratic government, a majority vote. This looks unfavourable concerning the opposition. In a similar regard, he mentions that some Alberta-based companies "argue that Kyoto will actually benefit the economy by forcing industry to be more energy efficient and innovative" (Bergman 21). Benefit to the economy, efficiency and innovativeness are usually looked upon as good things so in opposing these, an unfavourable bias appears. ... Kyoto has potential to be good according to this statement so Bergman is biasing unfavourably to the Albertan opposition here.