News Media

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“The media’s failure to connect the dots [is] why [it’s not seen as a]…priority.”

Commercial media could not exist, financially, without the commercials.

The percentage of advertisements that come from pollution-related 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 12/19 edition of TIME magazine, when 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 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.”