On the December 22 edition of RT’s The Big Picture, Thom Hartmann interviewed notorious fossil-fuel industry shill Marc Morano, who proudly proclaimed that climate-change denialism is alive and well despite the recent Paris climate agreement. Watch the sickening, quasi-orgasmic glee on Morano’s face when he notes that American cable and broadcast networks abandoned coverage of the Paris talks once President Obama left the proceedings:
Unfortunately, it’s hard to gainsay Morano’s point about the mainstream media’s mediocre coverage of the climate crisis, especially when the exact same point was made the very next day by Bill Nye on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports:
Remember three years ago, when then-CNN star Candy Crowley issued a weak mea culpa for her horrible failure to ask even one question about carbon pollution in the second presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney? The half-hearted nature of her apology notwithstanding, at least Crowley had the decency to acknowledge her sin of omission on emissions. What’s CNN’s excuse for not having their moderators ask any of the Republican presidential candidates about climate change in the “main-event” GOP debate on December 15? What’s ABC’s excuse for not having their moderators ask Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders about the climate crisis in last Saturday night’s Democratic debate?
As Miles Grant notes, this punting on pollution is pathetic:
Why are journalists more willing to discuss El Nino than global warming? Since El Nino can’t be pinned on polluters, they feel they can discuss it and not be accused of taking sides on a hot-button issue. Of course, one could certainly question whether it’s “objective” to shy away from climate science simply because it’s controversial.
It’s important to question the coverage now, because this warm pattern isn’t going away—in fact, NOAA warns, it’s only just beginning…
Do we have to wait until the corporate headquarters of the major American cable and broadcast networks are underwater to get better climate coverage?
UPDATE: More from Brad Friedman and Joe Romm.
SECOND UPDATE: From the Young Turks.
