On Friday, June 28, 2019, climate justice activists gathered outside Fox News headquarters in New York City demanding all major media outlets start taking actions in their thus far lackluster reporting about the climate crisis. They request climate emergency media standards which include covering the health, economic, and humane impacts of the climate crisis, link carbon pollution to extreme weather patterns and make the climate crisis a priority in their news coverage. They also demand that Fox News stop downplaying and spreading falsehoods about the worsening climate breakdown.
The group of activists included members from Fridays For Future, Earth Strike, Extinction Rebellion NYC, 365NYC as well as Earth Uprising International which was founded by 14-year-old activist Alexandria Villasenor who wrote about the importance of a media climate strike.
In her piece, published by The Guardian, The Nation, and Columbia Journalism Review, Alexandria explained why she feels its imperative to take this action, “The media as a whole lets us down every day by either treating the climate crisis as a non-story or, worse, by propagating misinformation designed to confuse people and thwart action. Recently I learned that ABC’s World News Tonight devoted more broadcast time to the new royal baby in a week than it spent on climate change during the entire year of 2018, according to data analyzed by the watchdog group Media Matters. ABC, CBS, and NBC did not mention the words “climate change” or “global warming” once during the combined 28 news stories they ran about catastrophic flooding in the midwestern United States in March.”
Today’s action was the first in a series of eight planned events this the summer. The #ClimateStrikeSummer series, happening every Friday until August 16th, 2019 is going to target eight different sectors, including corporations, politicians, financial institutions, and the fossil fuel industry.
And while the activist protested in front of Fox News HQ, the news ticker in the background reported about the extreme and record-breaking heat wave in France without any mention of a connection to the climate emergency.
For more information on how to get involved in the #ClimateStrikeSummer please go to https://earthuprising.org
