All In With Chris Hayes (MSNBC) hosted a series looking at how climate change is impacting Americans from Alaska to Florida. Hayes has consistently been on the cutting-edge of bringing environmental stories to his audience.
When I tuned in on Friday to catch the interview with Secretary of State John Kerry, terrorism in Bangladesh had bumped the spot. Hayes noted apologetically, "It [climate change] is not happening in real time although it is one of the most important stories of our time."
Coverage of climate disruption is getting short shrift on network news, according to a recent study conducted by Media Matters for America.
Specifically examined were the nightly evening network news and the Sunday broadcasts.
Climate coverage on ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX "collectively" fell 5 percent from 2014 to 2015. PBS, examined separately, not only led the group in air-time coverage, they featured the most stories on Pope Francis's environmental encyclical, the Paris Climate Summit, the Keystone Pipeline, and the Clean Power Plan. They were the only newsroom to look at the reduction of methane emissions and the question of what ExxonMobil knew and when they knew it.
ABC had the greatest dip, featuring a mere thirteen minutes of reporting for all of 2015. Although "coverage" for FOX expanded, the analysis showed the reporting slanted to a negative assessment of efforts to respond to climate change.
Media Matters outlined the top subjects that need attention concerning climate change on the national front:
Health
Economy
Security
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