Climate Media’s Problem? Guess Again
By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 18, 2026
“Climate alarmism and forced energy transformation is a losing argument now that the dust has settled. Exaggeration backfires, and here-and-now issues matter, not wasteful climate policies that do not and will not have any effect on climate for decades, if at all. As painful as it might be, it is time for Amy Westervelt (et al.) to check their premises. The Climate Industrial Complex is a beast just like, in her head, Big Oil.”
Amy Westervelt is in denial at DRILLED, a climate alarmist website. She gives four major reasons for “Climate Media’s Philanthropy Problem” (June 2, 2026).
“We’ve talked before about the massive bloodletting in climate media this year,” she begins:
even amidst the general demise of journalism, climate reporting stands out as having been hit particularly hard. The Washington Post and Reuters dismantled their climate teams, CBS did the same. Vox, The Los Angeles Times, and CNN all cut climate reporters in the recent past too. Last week, NPR joined the list, getting rid of its entire Climate Desk.
She then asks: “Why has climate been such a target?” She offers four theories (reproduced verbatim).
It doesn’t deliver audience numbers – This really depends on how you slice the data and which stories you’re looking at, but if you wanted to find numbers that justify cuts, you could, and if you wanted to find numbers that justified keeping climate stories in the mix, you could find those too;
“Nobody cares about climate” – This is only true if your definition of climate is detailed articles about atmospheric science. There are loads of surveys and polls out there that show people care a great deal about the things that climate action would deliver–clean air, consistent energy pricing, less dependence on a volatile commodity chief amongst them.
The business model for media is broken – This is certainly true, but why is it climate reporting in particular that’s being cut entirely, when other verticals are losing some but not all reporters?
Fear of the Trump administration – Certainly there’s a feeling out there that even saying the word “climate” or speaking negatively about oil companies could place one in Trump’s crosshairs, but good grief why bother even being a journalism outlet if you’re going to fold at the first sign of trouble?
https://www.masterresource.org/climate-messaging/climate-medias-problem-guess-again/
