‘HOAX’ of An OBITUARY for Respectable GOP SENATOR
When word of former Senator James M. Inhofe’s passing spread, the New York Times, Associated Press, Politico, and Huffington Post all published headlines disparaging him.
Following his death on Tuesday at the age of 89, many news media swiftly criticized the Oklahoma Republican for his environmental stance in their obituaries. Inhofe chaired the Environment Committee and was well-known for his strong views on global warming and climate change. He was the senator from Oklahoma with the longest tenure, serving from 1994 to 2023.
HuffPost’s post announcing his passing began, “Longtime former Oklahoma Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe, one of the most vehement climate change deniers to ever walk the halls of Congress, has died at age 89, the Tulsa World reported Tuesday.” The site referred to Inhofe’s well-known February 2015 snowball incident on the Senate floor as “an embarrassing attempt to prove that climate change is not real.”
Inhofe was described as a “defense hawk who called human-caused climate change a ‘hoax'” in the headline by the Associated Press. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, communications director Darin Miller referred to the first title of Politico’s story, “Former Sen. Jim Inhofe, who called climate change a ‘hoax,’ dead at 89,” as “highly offensive.”
Politico altered it after receiving complaints that “Former Sen. Jim Inhofe died at 89.”
Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, remarked, “Politico, utterly classless, finding the worst way to mention the passing of the longest-serving Senator from Oklahoma and a Senate institution.” Billy Gribbin, his communications director, made this statement.
After that, he said, “Good, they changed it.”
Fox News Digital was informed by a Politico representative that “headlines are regularly A/B tested and switched on a rotation, based on a number of factors, including engagement.” The headline in the New York Times commemorating his life read, “James M. Inhofe, Senator Who Denied Climate Change, Dies at 89.”
The headline reminded radio host Erick Erickson of the Gray Lady’s obituaries for Democratic senators. “Edward M. Kennedy, Senate Stalwart, Is Dead at 77,” together with “Robert C. Byrd, a Pillar of the Senate, Dies at 92.”
“A woman was slain by one. Another was a Ku Klux Klan leader. However, there is also that other person. Erickson wrote in reference to Kennedy, Byrd, and Inhofe.
James M. Inhofe, a five-term Republican senator from Oklahoma and maybe Washington’s most well-known opponent of the accepted science of human-caused climate change, passed away on Tuesday in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Inhofe served as president of the Senate until President Donald J. Trump took office in 2017. The Times article’s top paragraph stated, “He was 89.”