For my friends at Heatmap.News, I wrote about what the Dominion lawsuit means for Fox News’ approach to climate change. Spoiler: Probably not that much. Fox’s coverage is still going to be pretty bad!
With Trump on the ropes in November and December of 2020, the network’s executives and stars worried about losing their audience to right-wing competitors like Newsmax and OANN that assured viewers that Trump really did win the election. Murdoch grumbled about CNN’s superior ratings. Tucker Carlson fretted about the company’s stock price, and tried to get a Fox News reporter fired after she fact-checked Trump’s bogus claims. He even said he hates Trump “passionately.”
The truth didn’t matter. What mattered was keeping hold of viewers, at any cost. […]
What does all of this have to do with climate change, you may ask?
Simple. If Fox News gives its viewers what they want, at any cost, then it’s pretty clear that what Fox News viewers want is news telling them that that climate scientists are power-mad, that climate solutions are tyranny, that climate activists hate nature, that climate change is a Chinese hoax.
Please read the whole thing, and if you’re interested in climate issues, check out Heatmap more generally. It’s a new news organization, started up by a smart crew that includes some of my former colleagues from The Week. They could use your support!