Who reports what, and why do they report it?

I have begun a new semester and one of my classes is a media criticism class. That requires me to keep a log of my media use and then do some research on what I log. I'll be posting some of that work here during the semester.

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This week I have had hardly any radio listening time, but have done a lot reading on line (also some design magazines). One of the things I've tried to pay attention to is who is reporting what kind of news.

For example, Investors Business Daily seems to report news and publish editorials that run counter to the popular global warming movement. (For example: http://ibdeditorial.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=287279412587175 )

I think there are two ways to view this:
1) IBD is in the hip pocket of the polluters who want to keep selling SUVs and building coal fired power plants.
2) Investors really need to know what the weather is going to be so they can plan for it. I, for one, wouldn't invest in a vinyard in Washington sate if I knew the weather there for the next century was going to be like the Yukon is now. But if global warming is real I, certainly, would make that investment.

Also, who is reporting news the other direction? I mean who are the people behind the the global warming movement. In general they are people I do not trust, but I have to keep that distrust in abeyance because on this issue they might know what they are talking about and investing in that vinyard in Washington might be a smart move. But since, as a class, these people, in my opinion, are not very interested in creating wealth, I have to keep that in mind, too.

Keeping everyone's motives in mind when I read something is not always easy. But Google helps. It took me less than five minutes of searching to discover that IBD is owned by the William O'Neil Company (http://www.williamoneil.com/) and that they are a data and information company that serves institutional investors. And Wikipaedia provides info on the founder and owner of the company (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_O'Neil).