Pic Of The Moment: Media Reacts As Over 300,000 People March For Action On Climate Change

[eridani]

71. Where to complain

If over 300,000 people march in New York City to demand action on climate change, does it make a sound? Not if you're watching the Sunday morning network chat shows.

The September 21 People's Climate March lived up to its billing as the largest climate change march ever, drawing a massive crowd to focus world attention to the climate emergency. Similar events happened in other major cities around the world.

But the highest-profile discussion shows in the corporate media--ABC's This Week, NBC's Meet the Press, Fox News Sunday and Face the Nation on CBS--either did not know it was happening or didn't think it was important.

Other matters were more pressing. On NBC's Meet the Press, for instance, new anchor Chuck Todd presented a segment about how the midterm elections should be seen as a battle between Chick-Fil-A and Starbucks. (Apparently Republicans are fond of the fast food chicken, Democrats the coffee chain.)

There was one exception; during a panel on ABC's This Week, Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel argued that more US wars in the Middle East distract from "real security challenges" like

a catastrophic climate crisis which the Pentagon has called a clear and emerging danger. There are 100,000 people marching outside this studio today because of that.
The Sunday shows generally give little attention to climate change, as FAIR noted earlier this year (Extra!, 4/14). In February, all three network programs (ABC, CBS and NBC) talked about climate change on the same day (2/16/14), the most notable contribution being Meet the Press hosting a "debate" over the existence of climate change between TV science personality Bill Nye and a Republican politician.

So here's a simple question to the Sunday chat shows: If a day of massive international climate marches--right ahead of a major United Nations conference--is the wrong time to cover a global climate emergency, when will the right time be?

ACTION: After their silence on the People's Climate March, ask the Sunday shows when they think global climate change will be important enough to take seriously.

CONTACT:

Meet the Press
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ABC This Week
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Fox News Sunday
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CBS's Face the Nation
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