On Tuesday, President Obama rolled out a plan to cap carbon emissions at existing power plants, improve efficiency standards on automobiles, double the amount of electricity produced with renewables, and lead a global movement to address climate change. But the media virtually ignored it.
All of the three major news networks spent mere minutes on the speech — which ran in total 49 minutes.
While the lack of coverage is shocking enough, perhaps the most astounding media failure of the day was by FOX News, who broke from Obama’s climate speech to interview climate denier Chris Horner. Horner works for the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute, and is largely funded by the oil money, including the Koch Brothers and Exxon-Mobil.
Of course, a media blackout on climate issues is nothing new. Even when outlets cover the devastating and very real affects of a changing climate, they are reluctant to mention “climate change” by name. Recently, the midwest experienced historic flooding, but only 3 percent of coverage used the term. When hurricane Sandy tore its way through New York, literally no newspapers mentioned a climate connection. Perhaps this comes from the shady, and undisclosed, connection between major news outlets and dirty energy interests.
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