News Media
“'The media’s failure to connect the dots…is [partly] why
​
Americans don’t perceive [it] to be a…priority issue'.”
By Kasa Fue - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87486464
Commercial media would not exist, financially, without the commercials.
​
​
The percentage of advertisements that come from pollution-producing companies could be 25%.
​
Two of the top U.S. purchasers of ads are car companies: GM at $3.2Bn, and Ford at $2.5Bn.
​
​
As a media business director, would you allow truth-telling stories about polluters -
if those same polluters were providing vital advertising money? Maybe sometimes, but how often?
​
​
NPR and PBS are funded by government (as well as “underwriters” - who are really advertisers).
"ExxonMobil is among NPR's financial supporters."
​
-
Did you know,
-
both “The NY Times and The Wash. Post...have internal studios [who made ads] for Big Oil”?
-
​
​
-
Geneveive Guenther at End Climate Silence:
-
“Push...media...to refuse fossil fuel sponsorship, end...conflicts of interest, and tell the truth.”
-
​
-
​
-
Emily Atkin at Heated says,
-
“No newsroom should profit from fossil fuel propaganda...
-
Companies' lies aren’t harmless. Climate change is deadly.”
​
​
​
​
How well does the news media cover stories about pollution & weather?
​
​
-
“The fact that [they] don't connect the dots leaves...
-
[people] feeling like climate change is just something that happens.”
​
​
-
​ “Only 2 of 95 news segments mentioned the link between...climate...and...wildfire.
-
[And] none said that global heating is caused by human...pollution.”
​
​
-
“Journalism’s failure to properly report the climate story...[is]...one of its great humiliations.”
Maybe the best the commercial news media can do was the 12/2019 edition
of TIME magazine, where Greta Thunberg was named PERSON of the YEAR.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time mentioned weather-crisis causes, plus noted why flying is bad:
“roughly 124,000 flights...every day [produce many] tons of [ghg] gases.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
They included an entire paragraph about the flight-shame movement.
They criticized some of Greta’s suggestions. “Thunberg has no magic solution.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But there was also:
-
- a full page ad for a foreign airline
-
- 1 page of ads for car dealers
-
- a 1 page ad for car loans
-
- a 3 page ad for a lung cancer medication
-
- 1 full page ad for a car insurance company
-
- a ½ page photo of a car mechanic (with oil and grease) about a different medication
-
- a full page ad for international tourism
-
- 2 ads for banks which, partly, invest in pollution-related companies
-
- and 1 full page ad for an American airline
Will media coverage of pollution stories improve? Maybe not:
-
“Saudi Arabia is funding a...digital news platform...[as part of] a new lobbying effort.”
-
​
-
“Rupert Murdoch...who...owns Fox News, plans to launch a...channel...called Fox Weather.”
-
​
-
"The Saudi royal family has been the second-highest shareholder in [Murdoch’s] Corporation."
​
​
​
"'The multitudes remained plunged in ignorance...and their leaders, seeking their votes, did not dare to undeceive them.’"
​