After reading this article, my mind simplified the findings as: organizations that have more money get more press than those that have less. Seems pretty obvious when framed in this manner.
It seems only natural to me that the more interesting one is the one challenging our knowledge: its (potential) information content is higher, simply because it is less probable.
In other words, in the current world an article pushing for climate change activism might be the classic "dog bites man" while the opposite is "man bites dog".
I believe in it but it is sad to see that we are so scared of it that we cannot even bother to explain why something is wrong and instead have to opt for
- name calling
- appeal to authority
- strawmen
every time.
Again: I don't work for big oil. I don't fly and haven't for years. I reduce, reuse and recycle and do all the right things.
But there are still a number of questions I have that I cannot get answers for because if I ask them before anyone who knows has a chance to answer someone will summarily downvote and/or flag it and say I am a JAQ-ing shill. (JAQ = Just Asking Questions is a known bad tactic, but it is incredibly frustrating to be accused of that when I just want to know the answer.)
Even if you are 100% convinced climate change is happening (as most of us are), funding people who are trying to disprove it is a necessary and useful function of science.
In fact, if you go into it with a pre-conceived bias that disagrees with everything everybody else has seen, you'll be laughed out of it. You should be laughed out of it too if your bias aligned with what everybody else has seen.
The article says:
"While just 10% of the press releases Wetts found featured anti-climate action messaging..."
Which means that 90% of the press releases contain pro climate action statements. Seems only natural that people tend to be more curious towards information that is less expected. According to the numbers given (90% vs 10%, 7% vs 14%) about 80% of all the information the public is exposed to is pro climate action.