Stephan: This report raises what I consider to be a critically important issue. Mainstream media, particularly cable media simply does not cover the news. It becomes obsessed with something and mostly the news is an endless commentary about that issue. Typically an hour of "news" is an A block, a B block and then lesser C and D blocks. That's it. To really become even modestly familiar with the news of the world one has to listen to the British BBC, the Chinese, CGTV, and Islamic Aljazeera. Read the Guardian, Der Spiegel, and Asia Times.
But what really worries me is that American media is not properly covering climate change in all its aspects. The most important trend that is going to change every aspect of life on earth goes weeks without a mention on CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CNN. On top of that the most watched television cable network FOX, is a deliberate propaganda operation in which facts play little or no role. As a result for many Americans it is almost impossible to sort actual news from ideological crap.
There is going to be a big price for this.
Flooding caused by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico’s coastal town of Loiza. Credit:Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo / The Washington Post/Getty
To hear many journalists tell it, the spring of 2020 has brought a series of extraordinary revelations. Look at what the nation has learned: that our health care system was not remotely up to the challenge of a deadly pandemic. That our economic safety net was largely nonexistent. That our vulnerability to disease and death was directly tied to our race and where we live. That our political leadership sowed misinformation that left people dead. That systemic racism and the killing of Black people by police is undiminished, despite decades of protest and so many Black lives lost.
Journalism is now engaged in explaining and contextualizing this moment, a frenzy of feature writing prompted by the filling of morgues and the throngs of people in the streets. Some of these pieces will be impressive; a few will win our most prestigious journalism prizes. We’ll look back at the spring of 2020 and congratulate ourselves on the central role played by […]
Laurie Kleisinger
on Monday, July 6, 2020 at 10:53 am
Again, I recommend NPR as a good domestic source of news. They don’t shirk away from these stories, they are in-depth and interview excellent scientists and researchers. You learn so much background information from NPR because they are so thorough.
Again, I recommend NPR as a good domestic source of news. They don’t shirk away from these stories, they are in-depth and interview excellent scientists and researchers. You learn so much background information from NPR because they are so thorough.