Thursday, January 12, 2012

You give us 32 minutes, we'll give you the end of the world

The Climate Progress subdivision of Think Progress reported the other day that evening news broadcasts of the three major TV networks devoted a total of 32 minutes--14 separate stories--to climate change in the year 2011. This morning, I figure NPR gave me close to 32 minutes on yesterday's movements of the Republican presidential candidates in and around South Carolina. Not anything about what the candidates "believe", mind you--something that might help a South Carolina voter decide what to do about the situation--but about "how they're doing": even sound bites from the candidates themselves only discussed their views on the horse race.*

Then again, anybody who's been paying a modicum (or a small emoticon) of attention knows as much as she or he can stand about the candidates' views already, and I imagine that that applies to the journalists as well, not to mention that they're typically not very interested in economic policy and such. And likewise, I guess, for climate change--if what's happening to the Arctic sea ice is news to you, you're pretty far behind.

Maybe news itself is a problem--maybe we really need more opinion, just the way they feel on Fox News. Not so much what I'm doing, which is merely stammering--teaching myself the news about what I'm thinking, and sharing it with a presumably similarly half-assed audience--but mobilizing? Just a thought.
Made the news when it was cold in Florida...


*Think Progress itself didn't bother to promote the 32-minutes story to its main site, for that matter--I got it from Steven D at Daily Kos.

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