9/5-8 TV Coverage Of Horrific Western Fires Mentioned Climate 15% Of The Time; In August, 4%

[hatrack]

Most news coverage of the wildfires raging in California, Washington and Oregon on American TV channels made no mention of the connection between the historic fires and climate crisis, according to a new analysis from Media Matters. Reviewing coverage aired over the 5-8 September holiday weekend, the progressive media watchdog group found that only 15% of corporate TV news segments on the fires mentioned the climate crisis. A separate analysis found that during the entire month of August only 4% of broadcast news wildfire coverage mentioned climate crisis.

Wildfires are raging in states across the American west, burning record acreage in California, Washington and Oregon. The wave of fires was first sparked and stoked by a spate of unusual weather in August, including rare lightning storms that hit parts of California that were vulnerable to fire because drought and heat had dried out vegetation. The fires came before low-elevation, coastal parts of the state reached peak fire season in the autumn when fierce offshore winds have driven the biggest fires in recent years.

EDIT

Climate crisis is not the only factor driving the barrage of blazes across the region. Ironically, a century of suppressing fires – extinguishing the natural, necessary fires in western forests and other wildlands to protect homes and timber – has led to an accumulation of fire-fueling vegetation. “A deficit of fire, concatenated with the effects of climate change have led us here,” said Don Hankins, a fire ecologist at California State University, Chico.

Media Matters singled out two TV news journalists who are regularly talking about the role of climate crisis: the CBS meteorologist and climate specialist Jeff Berardelli and NBC’s Al Roker. The Media Matters analysis also noted that so far, 2020 has been the third year in a row during which corporate broadcast TV news discussed the impacts of climate crisis in fewer than 5% of wildfire segments.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/11/american-tv-news-california-oregon-fires-climate-crisis

[orwell]

1. I was at a water company yesterday...

...doing some computer work.

I live in California.

They only put their masks on when I come in the office.

They think the fires are a result of...

The government not "sweeping the forest"
Antifa terrorists
God being mad at us

I mumbled through my mask that this is what climate change is, that this is not only the new normal but will look like the good times soon, that this is why science matters.

They all get silent. They have heard me talk like this for 10 years. (I wrote a song about Medford on fire due to climate change 40 years ago...)

This is how people talk in an area where we have been evacuated due to devastating fires in 5 out of the last 6 years. 50% of our county has burned.

By the way, I hear the same shit when I work at the local fire department.

The propaganda spewed by corporate media and the RepubliCon party at the moronic masses works.

We are so fucked...