Shocked, Shocked: PBS News Hour Way Ahead Of Network News In Climate Coverage [View all]

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PBS NewsHour aired 121 climate segments in 2019, or nearly 10 segments each month. That’s more climate segments than the nightly news shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC aired combined (116). PBS NewsHour’s 2019 coverage marks a significant, and growing, increase over the past two years. In 2018, the show aired 72 segments that addressed climate change, up from 69 segments in 2017.

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In addition to the amount of segments the program aired, the length and depth of coverage is equally telling of the show's growing commitment to climate reporting. A generous segment on climate by corporate nightly news shows lasted around three minutes, while a climate story on PBS averaged around eight minutes -- or more than double the length of its counterparts. (PBS NewsHour runs 60 minutes long, which is twice as long as its broadcast network counterparts. This allows more space and length for climate coverage.)

For example, a report, airing on March 27, on how some scientists are “exploring unorthodox means” of removing carbon from our atmosphere, ran for 8 minutes and 54 seconds. Another segment, airing on September 19, spent 8 minutes and 21 seconds detailing how climate change is intensifying weather systems like Harvey and Florence.

The longer segments not only signal the importance of the issue to audiences, but also allow PBS NewsHour to avoid shallow and vapid reporting (that often results from the frenetic pace of corporate broadcast news) in favor of storytelling that is enriched with multiple voices.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/pbs-newshour-significantly-outperforms-corporate-broadcast-nightly-news-shows