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We at EndClimateSilence.org are calling for reporters and anchors to mention climate change in the stories they are reporting about its effects.
We also ask reporters and producers not to suppress their efforts!
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We also ask reporters and producers not to suppress their efforts!
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Here's the background: in conversation with a reporter on a national beat at a major newspaper, we learned that this writer once tried to mention climate change in a story but was told by their editor that doing so would be "political."
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The reporter was ordered to take their mention of climate change out.
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This is just one anecdote. But it's representative.
Editors & producers have been affected by the oil & gas messaging that has turned acceptance of climate science into a marker of Left identity.
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Editors & producers have been affected by the oil & gas messaging that has turned acceptance of climate science into a marker of Left identity.
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Due to that messaging, echoed by GOP politicians and right-wing media, legitimate editors and producers are afraid.
They are afraid that mentioning climate change will demonstrate "bias."
They are afraid that their outlets will be seen not as objective, but as "political."
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They are afraid that mentioning climate change will demonstrate "bias."
They are afraid that their outlets will be seen not as objective, but as "political."
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But of course NOT mentioning climate change in a story about its effects is itself political.
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#ClimateSilence advances the political agenda of the oil and gas interests who hope to suppress the truth, for as long as they can, about the increasingly horrifying things our use of fossil fuels is doing to us.
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Climate deniers have made climate change "political" to deligitimate climate science and suppress #climatechange in the news. Don't fall for it.
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The attribution science is strong. There are resources to back you up. See this thread here.👇🏽
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There needs to be an institutional shift. The decision-makers and gate keepers need to:
1) Stop allowing climate deniers to dictate the terms of how climate change is represented.
2) Understand that #ClimateSilence is itself political.
And 3) .....
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1) Stop allowing climate deniers to dictate the terms of how climate change is represented.
2) Understand that #ClimateSilence is itself political.
And 3) .....
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Accept the terrible reality that the #ClimateEmergency is no longer a story for the science section. It is one way or another in the paper every day, whether you mention it or not.
Tell the truth.
#EndClimateSilence
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Tell the truth.
#EndClimateSilence
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