Two media leaders on opposite sides of the political fence tweeted their belief in man-made climate change today, as the Senate's most vocal global-warming skeptic criticized the media for promoting climate "alarmism."

"Climate change very slow but real," media mogul Rupert Murdoch tweeted. "So far all cures worse than disease. Shale gas huge breakthrough for US. Half carbon of coal and oil."

And Twitter co-founder Evan Williams chimed in: "I think climate change awareness's new tag line should be 'It's happening.'"

Murdoch was criticized by advocates for action on global warming who took issue with his comment about climate change being "very slow." Estimates for the speed of global warming vary widely, with high-end estimates predicting an average jump of more than 6 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. U.S. EPA and others have also begun to reassess the life-cycle greenhouse gas footprint of gas from shale.

Murdoch is a supporter of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who spent much of the GOP primary season fending off attacks on his past record of supporting action on climate change. But during a surrogate debate today at Washington, D.C.'s Newseum, Romney surrogate Linda Stuntz, a former deputy energy secretary under President George H.W. Bush, said Romney was not a climate denier (Greenwire, July 11).

Meanwhile, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) took to the Senate floor to criticize not only Murdoch and Williams but the media in general for stoking the fire of fear about global warming.

He pointed to recent articles linking weather events to man-made climate change.

"They said that the wildfires and hot temperatures over the past few weeks are likely to convince Americans that global warming is real," he said. "This is kind of a dangerous game to play, because what are they going to say when winter comes?"

A spokesman for Inhofe said he was not aware of the tweets by Murdoch and Williams.