We haven't been hearing as many calls to shut down PBS as we used to. Maybe this will change things:
PBS NewsHour takes the 2014 prize for talking the most, and the most seriously,
about climate change.
PBS NewsHour, which runs for 60 minutes, aired 45 reports last year that covered climate change. By comparison, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, and ABC's World News Tonight, which are each 30 minute programs, aired 22, 14, and 11 climate-related reports in 2014, respectively.
The other networks have sharper time constraints, and the Earth being in the middle of a major catastrophic extinction event is a little same-y. How you produce an entire year's worth of a network nightly news show while mentioning climate change only a dozen or so times, I couldn't tell you. Must have been a lot of Taylor Swift news this year. But this is where the major difference lies, and it is Not That Damn Hard, people.
PBS NewsHour also provided scientific perspectives in climate change stories more often than any of the other major networks, interviewing or quoting 27 scientists over the course of the year. In comparison, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News interviewed or quoted 11 and 7 scientists, respectively, while ABC's World News Tonight interviewed or quoted just two scientists.
I'm not sure how you cover climate science for a year while only
twice talking to any actual scientists about it, but I expect it is because Mr. Lobbyist's phone number was already available and you know he'll be good for a quote. Gawds.
You know, climate change is actually a very interesting subject with a lot of very strange potential implications. It also plays right into the entire reason most national news shows exist, which is to send their viewers into spasms of panic over all of the things in the world that are going to kill them at any given moment. It is equal parts natural disaster, suicide bomber, space invasion and political thriller. If Fox News were on board with climate change, they would have their viewers in a quivering mass on the subject within days. Advertisers would love it, because Buy Overpriced Gold. The NRA would be giddy over the implications because it means your children and grandchildren might get to blast some folks. Climate change is like ebola plus measles plus incoming freaking asteroid impact, and if you can't make that exciting in a high-production-values network news format you are really not trying very hard.