Two years ago this month, the Associated Press announced that the news organization would expand its climate coverage by hiring more reporters including even a stand alone desk to report on climate change. This made possible thanks to contributions from multiple liberal philanthropic groups, among them the Rockefeller Foundation.

In reality, it was nothing more than a campaign to promote climate change alarmist propaganda. This as evidenced by many of the same foundations financing the AP were also to have discovered to have paid for a two-day teach-in for news reporters called Covering Climate Now that took place during September of last year at the Columbia Journalism School at Columbia University in New York City.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the event at Columbia Journalism School involved encouraging and teaching journalists from a variety of different news outlets (like CBS News, NBC, Reuters, and Vox)  make climate a part of every beat in the newsroom. The Free Beacon reports that the conference’s co-founder, Mark Hertsgaard, told participants during a session he taught entitled The State of Climate Journalism: Issuing a Call to Action that climate change isn’t just a problem or crisis, but one that needs 24-hour a day coverage. In other words, a quasi-coronavirus pandemic applied to the Earth.

As it turns out, Real Clear Politics recently released a study that shows major media news organization’s news coverage almost exactly matches climate alarmist narratives. However, despite the breadth of media propaganda dedicated to further climate hysteria, there is a cultural shift away from or against it entirely.

Not only are many organizations backing away from their climate alarmist policies, but news media organizations are also suffering badly to the point of massive layoffs. Even publications, like The New Yorker, spell out the coming doom by declaring an extinction level event on the horizon that will affect most (if not all) of the news organizations that are participating in the Covering Climate Now disinformation. From The New Yorker:

A report that tracked layoffs in the industry in 2023 recorded twenty-six hundred and eighty-one in broadcast, print, and digital news media. NBC News, Vox Media, Vice News, Business Insider, Spotify, theSkimm, FiveThirtyEight, The Athletic, and Condé Nast—the publisher of The New Yorker—all made significant layoffs. BuzzFeed News closed, as did Gawker.

The Washington Post, which lost about a hundred million dollars last year, offered buyouts to two hundred and forty employees. In just the first month of 2024, Condé Nast laid off a significant number of Pitchfork’s staff and folded the outlet into GQ; the Los Angeles Times laid off at least a hundred and fifteen workers (their union called it “the big one”); Time cut fifteen per cent of its union-represented editorial staff; the Wall Street Journal slashed positions at its D.C. bureau; and Sports Illustrated, which had been weathering a scandal for publishing A.I.-generated stories, laid off much of its staff as well.

One journalist recently cancelled a networking phone call with me, writing, “I’ve decided to officially take my career in a different direction.” There wasn’t much I could say to counter that conclusion; it was perfectly logical.

It is very unfortunate when people lose their jobs. But a good chunk of the journalists who are being let go are political activists and the left has had control of academia for quite a while. Consequently, trust in the news media has reached levels not seen in 7 years. As more information becomes publicly available about events, like the Covering Climate Now conference, seeking to politicize news journalism, over time trust in news media will get even worse.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay