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How broadcast TV networks covered climate change in 2018. TLDR version: really shittily, like hardly at all. New analysis from the @mmfa climate team. mm4a.org/4Xa #EndClimateSilence #CoverClimate
We found a 45% DROP in climate change coverage on broadcast networks’ nightly news and Sunday morning political shows from 2017 to 2018 -- from a total of 260 minutes in 2017 down to just 142 minutes in 2018. 
Remember that 2018 brought us crazy extreme weather around the world (wildfires above the Arctic Circle! firenado!), an IPCC special report, a new National Climate Assessment, and a whole lot of other compelling reasons to cover climate change.
Almost a third of the time networks spent on climate change in 2018 came from a single episode of @NBCNews’ @MeetThePress on 12/30/18 that was dedicated to discussion of climate change. Without that episode, coverage would have plummeted 64% from 2017 to 2018.
.@NBCNews was the only network that aired more minutes of climate coverage in 2018 than in 2017 -- up 23%. @CBSNews’ time spent on climate coverage fell 56% from 2017 to 2018. @FoxNewsSunday's fell by 75%. @ABC’s fell by 81%.
.@ABC was the very worst network on covering climate change, as usual. @ABCWorldNews and @ThisWeekABC aired less than 11 minutes of climate coverage combined during all of 2018. ABC has aired less climate coverage than @CBSNews and @NBCNews every year since 2013.
Most of the people interviewed, featured, or quoted in the broadcast TV networks’ climate coverage were white men:
Only 9% of the people featured in the broadcast networks’ climate coverage were people of color:
Only 19% of the people featured in the broadcast networks’ climate coverage were women:
None of the broadcast TV networks' news reports on hurricanes Florence or Michael mentioned climate change. Only nine of their segments reporting on other weather disasters of 2018 mentioned that climate change exacerbates extreme weather.
The broadcast networks barely covered climate change at all in the first nine months of 2018. Almost 3/4 of the year's coverage came in the last three months:
Only a fifth of the segments that covered climate change even mentioned solutions or any kind of action that could be taken to fight or prepare for climate chaos:
Only one broadcast network climate segment in 2018 even mentioned that climate change is a national security threat. It's a big one.
If you think broadcast TV news doesn’t matter anymore, think again. More than 5 million people a day tune into the nightly newscasts on the big three networks, compared to about 1.2 million who watch cable news at night. journalism.org/fact-sheet/net…
To sum up: the coverage was bad. @ABC, @CBSNews, and @NBCNews need to step it up. #EndClimateSilence #CoverClimate
