Rubio in his last election said he would be a check upon Trump. He ended up being a Trumpanze. Ian decimates Florida due to climate change and both Rubio & Scott are climate change deniers. WHERE IS THE PRESS CONFRONTING THEM AND REMINDING VOTERS OF THEIR LIES? The Press is pretty worthless also. The Press is not as culpable as the GOP, but it is culpable.
Rubio in his last election said he would be a check upon Trump. He ended up being a Trumpanze. Ian decimates Florida due to climate change and both Rubio & Scott are climate change deniers. WHERE IS THE PRESS CONFRONTING THEM AND REMINDING VOTERS OF THEIR LIES? The Press is pretty worthless also. The Press is not as culpable as the GOP, but it is culpable.
I would disagree wrt the press’s culpability. Their greed for clicks and likes has replace their journalistic integrity. They provided the orange monster with billions of dollars in free advertising based on the outrageous statements he made in the 2016 campaign. They literally got him elected
Now they fan the flames of discontent wrt Biden’s valiant efforts to put some stability into our government and economy, instead of reporting on the dangerous hypocrisy of authoritarian GOP lawlessness and supremacy
Trusted news sources fall by the wayside as billionaires buy up media outlets to promote agenda and profit taking
The Watchdogs have been fed a meal that tastes better than the “integrity” that used to satisfy them. Money and Power is their preferred meat
As my DIL might say, “We’re Screwed”. Actually, she doesn’t say “screwed”
The press was never a shining beacon of free thought and journalistic principle. Almost always, it has been characterized by partisanship (often much worse than today) and pandering to whatever would increase sales. Go back and watch The Front Page (one of the best movies ever made) to get an idea of what it was like, and in many ways is again.
Agree, Jon. The term “yellow journalism” was coined in the 1890s. So while there have been bright spots in our national reporting, the opposite is closer to our historical norm. The Fairness Doctrine was conceived by the FCC in 1947 & not backed by Congress until 1954, lasting only until 1987. That’s a short period of time for the existence in the US of journalistic integrity.
I've never understood why another Fairness Doctrine hasn't been proposed and passed. The Dems have been in power often enough to enact one that addresses changes in technology and society. The Republican influence in my lifetime seems always to have been at odds with the good of the people. If we can't make the press more accountable, it seems it will be impossible to get our country on track. Even PBS NewsHour seems to have lost its mission to an extent. I have the feeling that the individual journalists and reporters' hearts are in the right place but that they aren't allowed to keep an interviewee honest. They can't follow through when John Thune (R, S. Dakota) tells his lies by saying "That has been disproven," or "That's a lie," which happens almost every time he is a guest, and he seems to be the designated liar of the Republican party to explain the latest mischief the R's are engaged in. Judy Woodruff seems to be hamstrung at that point, every time he's on, going on to the next question without holding him accountable. Don't the Republicans have enough mouthpieces of their own without being allowed to further spread their lies through PBS? NPR's Steve Inskeep has actually managed his guests when they lie. According to Wikipedia: "In January 2022, Inskeep interviewed former U.S. President Donald Trump on many issues including COVID-19 vaccinations, the 2020 presidential election and the future of the Republican Party, specifically in the 2022 midterm elections. When Inskeep pressured Trump with questions related to the attempts to overturn the election results and the 2021 United States Capitol attack, Trump suddenly hung up the phone interview.[9]" Now that's journalism. Will Judy Woodruff--who I have a high regard for--be replaced with someone who might be more forceful, or someone who kowtows to management which is buckling down to donors, I wonder?
Jennifer Rubin has an article in today's WaPo regarding the media and what can be done to remediate their part in the horror show that belongs on the GOP stage.
Wacko weather is showing up all over the world with increasing frequency. Too many record aberrations to dismiss as normal variation. You might as well deny the existence of the moon. Assembled numbers are pointing the same direction. https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/300/video-climate-spiral/ Does the press not love its children too?
Climate scientists term our current Human-assissted Weather phenomena "Global Climate Chaos", not the Press' "Global Warming". Word choice matters here just as with #tfg who is a Thief, not just a faulty packer (and, yes, staffers say he was actively involved in packing out - finally)..
Words do matter. My wife and I cringe everytime we hear a well meaning news reporter make statements describing actual conditions or disputing misleading or false statements using the same words in the misinformers use. This results in some confusion, some reinforcement of the misinformation and no clear rebuttal with clear indisputable language and facts. All news personnel should be required to attend classes in vocabulary, language, sentence structure and formation of clear thoughts.
I taught expository writing for many years. I have had students thank me years later including the one who won a case at the Nevada Supreme Court. Words do matter as i have said many times to those who want to misuse them. I often correct the grammar of reporters and others on TV as I watch.
I would have loved to take your course(s). I have been freelance writing for years. I have been "accused" of being 'too brutally honest', resulting in seldom being published. Long ago I learned how the mere placement or sequence of words determines the context and the outcome.
Thank you. I really enjoyed teaching that course. I was mainly the librarian, but also taught as well. Too brutally honest likely means that you told the unvarnished truth. I am reading now a book called the Legacy of Violence about the British Empire. And it is hard to read because it is brutal unvarnished truth. The government and the colonial administrators tried to hide a lot of this, so the research for the author was sometimes difficult. Keep up your good work.
I wish I had been in your class. I find that the gap between my viewpoint and that of someone immersed in the world of Fox News or Zerohedge is exasperated by the words and if I can use expository explanations rather than emotional responses, I can sometimes break through the smoke screen.
Thank you. It wasn't for everyone, so very small or even one on one. It is pretty amazing and so difficult to explain to such a person. Kudos for breaking through sometimes. I have had no success really. Usually I have to block the person. For these people dealing with an educated person is a threat to them and being elitist.
You CAN be in her class (or feel as though you are) since every Thursday, Heather does an hour of American history. It’s live on her Facebook page, but there are several years’ worth available on her YouTube channel (the YouTube posting is usually approx a month behind the Facebook livestream [though all the lectures are on FB, as well]; you’ll definitely get an education!)
It is amazing how many errors the media makes. I think it is partly that they are too rushed, and partly that both modern media and the public are less schooled in reading and writing. There is a lawyer on Twitter, @nyttypos, who copy-edits the New York Times as a hobby.
Chasing ratings and "getting there first" have been a huge disservice to the media world. Failure to properly source an event or to correct a report made in error appears not to be high on the list of "to-do's" in the media. Front-page errors often find their corrections buried in later pages in later issues.
St Ray Gun has always been a terrible president to me. He did so much damage and we are now dealing with the problems he helped create, some of which has been allowed to become nearly insurmountable, but are good political fodder for Rs.
The local news channel we watch has finally decided that they can talk about climate chaos although they use climate change. Here in the Willamette Valley in Oregon where it used to start raining at the end of August, we are have had exactly a couple days of puny rain since it stopped raining during the summer. And no rain in sight and it is already October. We are still watering....bone dry.
At least a decade ago, USDA in consultation with NOAA predicted the Ohio River Valley would become the "New" Napa-Sonoma by 2040. It seems to be happening sooner rather than later temperature-wise.
Here in Alaska we have had rain nearly every day since the beginning of July. One of my joys in life is berrypicking......wild berries. The cranberries have not had a chance to develop and the blueberries are sour. First time ever.
I like the phrase climate chaos. Ds have never learned the words do matter and now a lot of the local R ads talk about "defunding the police". If ever there was a stupid slogan, that is it.
I agree that it's possible the worst slogan ever and is counter-productive to what needs to happen. However, I believe "Defund the Police" originated our of the Black Lives Matter protests & marches. And like you and others I don't like how the DNC (not all Democrats) articulates issues; that's why I'm an independent. But Democrats aren't to blame for the phrase. Also, it means different things to different groups. The following link goes into the variations on what the phrase is understand to express.
"Last June, video of white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killing George Floyd, a Black man, went viral on social media. Uprisings took hold across hundreds of U.S. cities, and activist calls to “defund the police” went mainstream." https://journalistsresource.org/criminal-justice/defund-the-police/
I understand why this came to be and I wish it had been about reforming the police, adding crisis teams, etc. The problem is that the phrase is now being used in ads against Ds. I don't know about elsewhere, but here in Oregon, Salinas and McLeod-Skinner are being targeted. Salinas is the daughter of a police officer and voted for money for the state police. McLeod-Skinner was at the protests in Portland. She was correct in her view of the feds death star sent. Btw, a black protester here in Salem was just awarded a million dollars for what she suffered from the police during the George Floyd protests. Several cases coming up in Portland or at trial now with no judgements yet.
Climate crisis is a symptom. Global warming is the cause. This has been clear to nearly 100% of legitimate clinate scientists since James Hansen’s analysis and modeling based on historical data proved the case in the 1980s. People who deny that, regardless of their choice of words, either have not looked into it or do not know how to estimate the reliability of information. The term “global warming” accurately states the fundamental problem. Terms like “climate crisis” describe the changes caused by the fundamental problem.
Sadly, part of the "cynicism" of authoritarian followers assuming everyone is lying is the distrust of "experts," seen most clearly in the responses to hurricane Ian of residents marooned on their islands off Florida and in their houses along the coast who, when told they must evacuate, decided instead to hunker down and wait to see just how bad it would be...and then cried out for help and rescue when Ian proved to be as bad as the "expert" weather forecasters had predicted; "They have eyes to see but do not see, and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious house." Mark 8:18
I am reminded of when Sarah Palin railed against the educated and the intellectuals. Josef Stalin executed one million of his intellectuals. Fear of fact and knowledge leads to massive destruction of human life and thought.
The blame for the lack of evacuation orders falls squarely on DeSantis, though he will slither out of it. While I left Florida nearly 23 years ago, I know firsthand that hurricanes changing course in ways that defy prediction. A slight shift in direction, especially along the coast, can spell the difference between a stormy day and widespread destruction and death. Ian is a classic example.
Growing up at the southern end of Chesapeake Bay with parents who would set up nautical charts on the dining room table to track hurricanes that appeared to be heading up the Atlantic coast, I learned to think of hurricanes as being much like footballs, you never know which direction it may bounce when it hits the ground. We had a 30' sloop in a slip at the yacht club and my father wanted to be clear on what additional lines to add and how much slack he could afford to allow the boat to rise safely in higher water without bouncing off the pier or pilings. One year (1954, Hurricane Hazel, Cat 4), he borrowed a 50 lb. mushroom anchor and moored her out in the river and away from the pier. Worked effectively except for the thumbnail he lost when the anchor rolled on the deck as he prepared to set it.
Wow! You ARE taking me back! When I was a wee lad in the early 1950s, we listened to "The Shadow" on the radio. 1950-1952. Growing up where the family grouped around the radio to listen to programs such as "The Shadow", "Dragnet", "Boston Blackie" and other shows including Glenn Miller and big band was a great period to grow up. The mind was called to imagine (visualize) the events taking place. As a footnote, years ago while living in Boston a neighbor's dog was named Shadow. Of course, that young couple had heard enough "Shadow" commentaries!
Some of the press is splendid! As I explain to those who think I am in a bubble: I get good sources on MSNBC (frequently more intelligent than CNN, plus a source of as much Fox as one can bear), read WAPO and The NY Times, and occasionally whatever pops up (the Barents Observer). As a trained researcher, I can sort sources. But seeing clearly now how little history Americans know, how very insular we are, I am extremely worried, along with every American who is watching where we are being taken by the Big Lie and Putin, that we may never recover.
I agree that there is splendid journalism going on, and it is there if you look for it, but that journalism that matters seems less in the public spotlight than it once was. It seems to me that the role of the press changed with Reagan, out of whose hand they seemed to feed with "The Great Communicator" and plenty of ongoing deference that they had not shown to Nixon or Carter. I stopped watching commercial TV news in the run-up to the Bush II Iraq War, where the mainstream sources I followed were practically waving pompoms for conflict to begin, even as the Casus Belli was absurdly thin from the getgo; and which sources such as the Guardian, which I began reading, showed as fraudulent even before the bombing began. US reporting seemed complicit in a way it had not been in the Vietnam conflict. Similarly, the investigative reporting of Watergate somehow seemed to me more aggressive than for the much greater scandals of the Trump Era. Since "Jan 6th" this seems to have improved, but still somewhat timid given the gravity of events, or at least from I personally notice.
Most people cannot sort sources and now with the internet everyone is an expert on everything. I do agree that some of the press is splendid. I do like Lester Holt and we do watch the NBC news.
Then we share many of the same people - informed and making their way as best they can through the avalanche of daily news. And we have HRC as teacher, organizer, and checker!
While the weather is increasingly "wacko," the evidence that climate change could be an existential threat has been mounting for many years. Consistently, the most dire scientific models have proven to be shockingly accurate ones.
The horror of what's going to happen globally is beyond the imagination of most people, or their willingness to accept. As I've said before in this forum, our descendants will loathe us for what we have wrought and lacked the will to combat.
Last week on a program on either CNN or MSNBC, Chef Andres (World Central Kitchen) went off on quite an excellent and detailed rant summarizing exactly the wide-ranging interconnected threats that are rapidly bearing down on all of us, world-wide.
Does the party of death love its children? I guess not. They are too busy indoctrinating them to be against every one who is not like themselves. Instead of focusing on real problems, they are in a hissy fit because a fat black woman (who is also a classically trained flutist) played Madison's flute among other nonsense.
Just read an excellent article about Florida in Popular Information that delineates what DeSatan was doing in the last year when he should have been focused on climate chaos including making it extremely difficult for local areas to do anything themselves. The article ended by quoting him: "We are not doing any left-wing stuff." You know, like trying to mitigate climate chaos in your state....in addition to focusing on all sorts of cultural nonsense and those pesky asylum seekers.
Oh yes, right wingers having a hissy fit about a flute they had never heard of (and I hadn't either) before an overweight black woman played it. Suddenly it is as sacred as the national anthem.
My sarcasm apparently didn't penetrate my written words. Many climate deniers (I know a few) believe that God and only God is responsible for anything going on in our atmosphere. We are living in a religious theocracy. It's scary.
The press is not only “as culpable as the GOP” but as complicit with their lie-propelled drive towards an authoritarian form of government. Heather reminded us of how Trump’s 2016 campaign cross-haired Hillary’s private email server to vilify her in the eyes of the electorate. I vividly recall how the press and tv news programs gave ample coverage to his accusations while minimizing the monstrosity of HIS abnormal behaviors, closet skeletons and mafia-like economic “successes.” Not that I was a fan of Hillary (the Democratic Party should have ushered a stronger candidate), but had the news media equally highlighted all of Trump’s vices as they did Hillary’s emails, today he wouldn’t be tfg — and we wouldn’t be having this surreal conversation about the impending global-decimating catastrophe that hardly anyone is doing anything to stop!
The press is owned by billionaires, and run by millionaires. They make their money with clicks, and good news doesn't get clicks. Why would they want a peaceful, healthy, functioning world?
I have NO idea what you were watching. BUT it certainly wasn’t what I was watching. I heard the TRUTH from Rachel Maddow and Ari Melber and Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC. You must have been watching Faux News by Rupert Murdoch.
Meanwhile, MSNBC's Morning Joe gave Trump hundreds of hours of free press and bottomless accolades without ever addressing what a nightmare we were entering into. Don't give MSNBC a free pass.
Yes. Joe is a Republican at heart, I believe. Even this morning, the coverage about the Dems chances in the mid-terms was negative. So much so that even I could see the bias. I've learned to take him with the salt lick (when a grain won't do).
The letter is remarkably free of trolls. Please do not describe anyone with whom you happen to disagree as crazy or insane. People can emphatically disagree without using either of those words.
I didn’t have cable news back then. I did watch PBS Newshour daily (and still do), but the morning network (all three non-Fox) news programs were not equitable to both candidates. BTW, I never watch anything on Fox (not a single program).
It WAS ridiculous! When tfg started censoring some of the press at his briefings, I wondered if they ever wished they had been more fair to Hillary. She wouldn’t have ever banned journalists from her press briefings!
To be fair, a lot of us were against Hillary, for a long list of understandable reasons. For me, it was because she and Bill ushered in the era of neoliberalism which all but destroyed the party of FDR.
I agree, but to me it was choice between someone who was competent and does understand what service in government means and someone who should never have power. I have had many arguments with people who even after death star was occupying the WH, would not admit that maybe HRC was the better choice. Now we have a Supreme Court that is in the process of undoing years of hard progress and our democracy is on the brink of being an autocratic theocratic nightmare. This would not have happened with HRC and she would not have tried to destroy our foreign commitments and would have approached COVID much differently. So while HRC was not my first choice and I did not vote for her in the primary, I had no problem of voting for her in the general.
Well, Holly, you WERE wrong about the Clintons ushering in the era of neoliberalism. And YES, it did destroy not just the Democrats but the entire United States. And many other countries around the world. Like, try Pinochet and Chile. And it came out of the University of Chicago: Neoliberalism began accelerating in importance with the establishment of the Mont Pelerin Society in 1947, whose founding members included Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Karl Popper, George Stigler and Ludwig von Mises. AND especially with Reaganomics. MILTON FRIEDMAN - LOOK HIM UP! 1947 is when neoliberalism was floated in, taking over the Keynesian theory of economics under which we were DOING FINE. But the main President & wife who debuted neoliberalism was REAGAN. Heard of Reaganomics? We're still living under that
No, and I resent your remark about my being insane and all caps to boot. I was surprised actually, but it seemed to me she was dissing HRC, not praising her. That was my take at the time and it did bother me. I am sure she does hate death star and I am back to enjoying her reports.
Really. I read voraciously and live in a house full of books which are largely nonfiction. We both read all the time. I am well educated, well read, fairly intelligent and I don't appreciate silly inane insults like you have just delivered. I can't imagine what exactly you are trying to achieve here except being incredibly boorish. I do understand the difference between Keynes and Milton Friedman for example. I recently read an excellent book on Keynes, the left half was about his economics and the views of many other economists. I am reading now about neoliberalism in Britain with regard to the British Empire. Save your rancor for the far right radicals who are trying to destroy the country and belong to the party of death. Get over yourself.
The press is complicit in a different way: self-censorship. Every writer, editor, publisher, no matter what their political opinion, knows that the second they reveal the subject of climate change in their piece, they will lose about half their audience. So they try to shy away from an open discussion.
Just before the last election, I mounted an art exhibition on the subject of flooding due to the climate breakdown. We had 12 artists' work displayed in a huge white room flooded with a foot of water. Visitors picked their size of knee-high rubber boots, and entered wading through the show.
We had a good press list of 137 contacts, from art magazines, to local tv news, to community newsletters. How many covered our exhibition? Zero.
Jeff, I read about your art installation several months ago. I believe your concept was a wonderful way to have an interactive art exhibit. Please keep up the good work. There are people out there that need the message brought to them repeatedly in creative ways. Your continued work will be much appreciated.
Jeff, I very much wish that what you are saying wasn’t true; that the press does cover climate issues well or at least occasionally but I ‘d have to lie. Through my teeth.
Long after your exhibition had closed, I found a reference to it. Don’t remember where (I read lots of online art/culture magazines) but I do remember looking at the photos and thinking how powerful it was. I know how much effort it took to put that together. Thank you for all that you did and do to communicate about the most important issue of our time.
As for mainstream media that cover climate, The Guardian is best at it (George Monbiot doesn’t pull any punches!) followed by Robinson Meyer in The Atlantic. Occasionally writer Bill McKibben publishes something in The New Yorker but he also has a newsletter here on Substack called The Crucial Years. It is well worth reading. Beyond that, I follow climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe, who is also an evangelical Christian, because she is both adept at addressing fellow evangelicals who deny climate issues and calling people to action.
If renewable energy policy is your jam, try Energy News Network. Housed at Fresh Energy in St. Paul, MN, Energy News Network covers climate and energy issues across the country. You can find lots of truly local issues that have big impacts in national policy, along with analysis of the Inflation Reduction Act’s climate provisions. Proud to say I help found and find funding for Energy News years ago.
Wish we could use the tagline: “It’s the climate stupid!” Sigh. back to helping get out the vote!
Thanks for pointing out specific media outlets that cover the climate crisis in timely and comprehensive ways. I will add to your list Elizabeth Kolbert of the New Yorker. Besides articles for the magazine, her books about the topic are brilliant, richly reported accounts of what's happening, why, and the bleak future ahead. "Field Notes from a Catastrophe," published in 2006, was my wakeup call. I highly recommend her latest book, "Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future."
It seems the simplest, most reliable way to understand and respond to climate deniers is to ask or find out how they make their money; SO MUCH of American enterprise is wrapped up in things which worsen climate change, from coal-burning and gas burning power-plants and furnaces, to internal-combustion driven vehicles, leisure vehicles (think motor boats, jet-skis, snowmobiles, 4-wheelers,... the list is nearly endless! Those who make a living from them stand to lose a lot, both financially as well as status and respectability if they agree that what they do contributes to worsening climate change. Think about it every time you start your car or turn on your furnace...and changing one's world-view can be VERY expensive!
While it doesn’t cover everything, I find that the Sierra Club’s quarterly magazine has the absolute best coverage on our climate crisis. My small monthly donation to them is repaid 100-fold w the info they provide & more importantly, the initiatives they support.
As we talk about the press’s complicity, We need to remember under “news as entertainment” any talking head with a show is perceived to be a “journalist.” Remember Tuckems said in a lawsuit he was an entertainer? But how many viewers of Fox—or any news really—are able to (or even thinks to) judge who really IS journalist?
Yes! We are drowning in opinion and infotainment masquerading as journalism. 24 Hr News operations and social media churn out fragmented information with little context. This all helps create a reactive populace with incredibly short attention spans. This inability to focus really miltates against critical thinking and historical sense.
What an AMAZING exhibit, Jeff: literally IMMERSIVE! The video you link should be seen by everyone, and at the least by those in our LFAA forum. What a shame you were not flooded by extensive press coverage. Unfortunately, the bottom line (as many have pointed out here today) is money. As it refers to Art (with a capital "A"), when it is subservient to capitalism, it becomes a product of consumerism, and its artistic value is exponentially depreciated. We can't forget that Art is what renders us Human... and HUMANE. Art is an imperative for the survival of Civilization!
Jeff, fabulous exhibit. Keep sharing it this way. You were prescient. Loved the creative " immersion" experience. And amazing how quickly you got it together. Congratulations.
As you mentioned, I never think of Philadelphia and flooding in the same thought as I do here in Florida, but it can happen anywhere. After Ian we are in the middle of the very real thing.... only here the salt water comes crashing and the fresh water is brownish, full of debris and human waste, quickly growing mold and drowning people. The overwhelming power of water stirred!
This is what happened to the Green Movement in California on 1990 too. Much activity, no press. Much sabatoge, much disinformation tying it to the Nazis, etc etc.
Powerful exhibition, even now, as a story to be shared. I will forward to others beyond this comment section. Let's all do the same. Art as change agent.
I wrote this comment below but thought it an appropriate response:
Here’s an example of great media coverage! I refer to CBS News reporter Margaret Brennan’s interview with Florida Sen Rick Scott. She was tenacious and insisted upon getting an answer to her questions regarding his opinion on racist and violent comments from tfg and mtg. Worth the watch!
His father and grandfather - both were Fred Trump. The Father did business with both Hitler and Stalin - selling them fuel suited for Hitler's airplanes. NAZIS
Thank you for sharing that clip. It gives me a real lift in spirit to see a tenacious push back. We all need to be doing that. And expecting that from newscasters and journalists.
Where are citizens confronting Rubio and Admitted Thief Scott? Are Floridians writing letters to the editor? Are they nagging local editors to examine the senators’ positions? Are they picketing their appearances and marching outside their local offices? Lots of people expect the press to take the lead, but it is up to us citizens to do that. When we do, then we can complain about the press (and there is plenty to complain about).
I noticed that and Hair Gaetz also voted against aid. Do people in Florida even notice that their so-called representatives vote against their interests and ultimately for Florida to be livable.
Some of them do as evidenced by posts by people in Florida who read Heather's letter and comment here. Unfortunately, too many do not. When I was growing up in the midwest, Florida was viewed as some kind of paradise in much the same way as Arizona is viewed by people here in the PNW. I have been there once and that was all I needed to see to know that I could never ever live there.
I avoid even hearing about Fla. Sadly for people on the West Coast / Gulf side of Fla. were hit very very hard by Hurricane Ian. At least in the SW area of Florida. When you talk to people in areas OTHER THAN SW or like Ft. Myers - they really don't care. I mean, they care but DON'T really want to be bothered about it. "We're fine" Fla is just plain weird.
I would agree about the denial among many there. Some people in the interior also suffered wind and rain and the east side of Florida is not immune from hurricanes either. As far as I am concerned Florida is an ongoing mess in so many ways.
Sadly, part of the "cynicism" of authoritarian followers assuming everyone is lying is the distrust of "experts," seen most clearly in the responses to hurricane Ian of residents marooned on their islands off Florida and in their houses along the coast who, when told they must evacuate, decided instead to hunker down and wait to see just how bad it would be...and then cried out for help and rescue when Ian proved to be as bad as the "expert" weather forecasters had predicted; "They have eyes to see but do not see, and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious house." Mark 8:18
It should come as no surprise to Rubio, Scott, DeSantis, Trump and the like when the climate really changes and become far more harsh and the very flat and low-lying land of Florida goes under water to join the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. How will they deny that?
The press. The way I see it is one - they are influenced by viewership. They will tend to report on issues that attract viewers. Sometimes, but not always, that means they spend too much time on issues that are not as important as other issues that don't make it to the top of the heap. And two - there is so much to choose from! The list of bad sh_t coming from the Republicans is so vast and endless, that they just can't cover it all! Some of us will get disappointed. Climate change is a perfect example. Although it is changing with each increasingly destructive and frequent weather event, climate change and climate denialism just doesn't get viewers jazzed up like other issues do, and it also gets flooded out by other big issues like the Mar-a-lago stuff.
Agreed. I had the same thought. The interviews I saw by MSN were as the rest; the aim is to solace the victim, present the story. But, never CONFRONTING the officialdom in the Desantis Admin. , at the right moment, of steps to take considering there is a fact of climate change. Make them say the words!
You mean "Skeletor" - aka Rick Scott, biggest Medicare fraudster EVER. His two buddies went to prison - he was elected governor of the state TWICE. He is grotesque. And "fondly" known by Democrats as Skeletor. UGH Also, of note, he cheated to win against Dem. Sen. Bill Nelson, a senator for ALL Floridians. A great guy, great office.
"True" journalists would not give Scott a pass. True journalists would call him out and put his feet on the fire. Cowardice has taken precedence over strength and courage. The truly bold among us, the truth seekers, are a token minority.
Rubio in his last election said he would be a check upon Trump. He ended up being a Trumpanze. Ian decimates Florida due to climate change and both Rubio & Scott are climate change deniers. WHERE IS THE PRESS CONFRONTING THEM AND REMINDING VOTERS OF THEIR LIES? The Press is pretty worthless also. The Press is not as culpable as the GOP, but it is culpable.
I would disagree wrt the press’s culpability. Their greed for clicks and likes has replace their journalistic integrity. They provided the orange monster with billions of dollars in free advertising based on the outrageous statements he made in the 2016 campaign. They literally got him elected
Now they fan the flames of discontent wrt Biden’s valiant efforts to put some stability into our government and economy, instead of reporting on the dangerous hypocrisy of authoritarian GOP lawlessness and supremacy
Trusted news sources fall by the wayside as billionaires buy up media outlets to promote agenda and profit taking
The Watchdogs have been fed a meal that tastes better than the “integrity” that used to satisfy them. Money and Power is their preferred meat
As my DIL might say, “We’re Screwed”. Actually, she doesn’t say “screwed”
The press was never a shining beacon of free thought and journalistic principle. Almost always, it has been characterized by partisanship (often much worse than today) and pandering to whatever would increase sales. Go back and watch The Front Page (one of the best movies ever made) to get an idea of what it was like, and in many ways is again.
Agree, Jon. The term “yellow journalism” was coined in the 1890s. So while there have been bright spots in our national reporting, the opposite is closer to our historical norm. The Fairness Doctrine was conceived by the FCC in 1947 & not backed by Congress until 1954, lasting only until 1987. That’s a short period of time for the existence in the US of journalistic integrity.
I've never understood why another Fairness Doctrine hasn't been proposed and passed. The Dems have been in power often enough to enact one that addresses changes in technology and society. The Republican influence in my lifetime seems always to have been at odds with the good of the people. If we can't make the press more accountable, it seems it will be impossible to get our country on track. Even PBS NewsHour seems to have lost its mission to an extent. I have the feeling that the individual journalists and reporters' hearts are in the right place but that they aren't allowed to keep an interviewee honest. They can't follow through when John Thune (R, S. Dakota) tells his lies by saying "That has been disproven," or "That's a lie," which happens almost every time he is a guest, and he seems to be the designated liar of the Republican party to explain the latest mischief the R's are engaged in. Judy Woodruff seems to be hamstrung at that point, every time he's on, going on to the next question without holding him accountable. Don't the Republicans have enough mouthpieces of their own without being allowed to further spread their lies through PBS? NPR's Steve Inskeep has actually managed his guests when they lie. According to Wikipedia: "In January 2022, Inskeep interviewed former U.S. President Donald Trump on many issues including COVID-19 vaccinations, the 2020 presidential election and the future of the Republican Party, specifically in the 2022 midterm elections. When Inskeep pressured Trump with questions related to the attempts to overturn the election results and the 2021 United States Capitol attack, Trump suddenly hung up the phone interview.[9]" Now that's journalism. Will Judy Woodruff--who I have a high regard for--be replaced with someone who might be more forceful, or someone who kowtows to management which is buckling down to donors, I wonder?
That is even clear in the Republican newspaper in Brazil, Indiana. I am not a happy candidate! I pay for my advertising!
The press. Do you mean Murdoch?
Jennifer Rubin has an article in today's WaPo regarding the media and what can be done to remediate their part in the horror show that belongs on the GOP stage.
Wacko weather is showing up all over the world with increasing frequency. Too many record aberrations to dismiss as normal variation. You might as well deny the existence of the moon. Assembled numbers are pointing the same direction. https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/300/video-climate-spiral/ Does the press not love its children too?
Climate scientists term our current Human-assissted Weather phenomena "Global Climate Chaos", not the Press' "Global Warming". Word choice matters here just as with #tfg who is a Thief, not just a faulty packer (and, yes, staffers say he was actively involved in packing out - finally)..
Words do matter. My wife and I cringe everytime we hear a well meaning news reporter make statements describing actual conditions or disputing misleading or false statements using the same words in the misinformers use. This results in some confusion, some reinforcement of the misinformation and no clear rebuttal with clear indisputable language and facts. All news personnel should be required to attend classes in vocabulary, language, sentence structure and formation of clear thoughts.
I taught expository writing for many years. I have had students thank me years later including the one who won a case at the Nevada Supreme Court. Words do matter as i have said many times to those who want to misuse them. I often correct the grammar of reporters and others on TV as I watch.
I would have loved to take your course(s). I have been freelance writing for years. I have been "accused" of being 'too brutally honest', resulting in seldom being published. Long ago I learned how the mere placement or sequence of words determines the context and the outcome.
Thank you. I really enjoyed teaching that course. I was mainly the librarian, but also taught as well. Too brutally honest likely means that you told the unvarnished truth. I am reading now a book called the Legacy of Violence about the British Empire. And it is hard to read because it is brutal unvarnished truth. The government and the colonial administrators tried to hide a lot of this, so the research for the author was sometimes difficult. Keep up your good work.
I wish I had been in your class. I find that the gap between my viewpoint and that of someone immersed in the world of Fox News or Zerohedge is exasperated by the words and if I can use expository explanations rather than emotional responses, I can sometimes break through the smoke screen.
Thank you. It wasn't for everyone, so very small or even one on one. It is pretty amazing and so difficult to explain to such a person. Kudos for breaking through sometimes. I have had no success really. Usually I have to block the person. For these people dealing with an educated person is a threat to them and being elitist.
You CAN be in her class (or feel as though you are) since every Thursday, Heather does an hour of American history. It’s live on her Facebook page, but there are several years’ worth available on her YouTube channel (the YouTube posting is usually approx a month behind the Facebook livestream [though all the lectures are on FB, as well]; you’ll definitely get an education!)
It is amazing how many errors the media makes. I think it is partly that they are too rushed, and partly that both modern media and the public are less schooled in reading and writing. There is a lawyer on Twitter, @nyttypos, who copy-edits the New York Times as a hobby.
Chasing ratings and "getting there first" have been a huge disservice to the media world. Failure to properly source an event or to correct a report made in error appears not to be high on the list of "to-do's" in the media. Front-page errors often find their corrections buried in later pages in later issues.
Plus they need to be taught that "fair and balanced"does not require denying Reality - or even hinting at ...
Reagan did away with "fair and balanced" in the eighties. Say "welcome" to Rupert Murdoch.
St Ray Gun has always been a terrible president to me. He did so much damage and we are now dealing with the problems he helped create, some of which has been allowed to become nearly insurmountable, but are good political fodder for Rs.
The local news channel we watch has finally decided that they can talk about climate chaos although they use climate change. Here in the Willamette Valley in Oregon where it used to start raining at the end of August, we are have had exactly a couple days of puny rain since it stopped raining during the summer. And no rain in sight and it is already October. We are still watering....bone dry.
At least a decade ago, USDA in consultation with NOAA predicted the Ohio River Valley would become the "New" Napa-Sonoma by 2040. It seems to be happening sooner rather than later temperature-wise.
Here in Alaska we have had rain nearly every day since the beginning of July. One of my joys in life is berrypicking......wild berries. The cranberries have not had a chance to develop and the blueberries are sour. First time ever.
He/she who controls the narrative controls the outcome.
I like the phrase climate chaos. Ds have never learned the words do matter and now a lot of the local R ads talk about "defunding the police". If ever there was a stupid slogan, that is it.
For sure Michele, for sure. I was downright mortified when I first heard that!
I agree that it's possible the worst slogan ever and is counter-productive to what needs to happen. However, I believe "Defund the Police" originated our of the Black Lives Matter protests & marches. And like you and others I don't like how the DNC (not all Democrats) articulates issues; that's why I'm an independent. But Democrats aren't to blame for the phrase. Also, it means different things to different groups. The following link goes into the variations on what the phrase is understand to express.
"Last June, video of white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killing George Floyd, a Black man, went viral on social media. Uprisings took hold across hundreds of U.S. cities, and activist calls to “defund the police” went mainstream." https://journalistsresource.org/criminal-justice/defund-the-police/
I understand why this came to be and I wish it had been about reforming the police, adding crisis teams, etc. The problem is that the phrase is now being used in ads against Ds. I don't know about elsewhere, but here in Oregon, Salinas and McLeod-Skinner are being targeted. Salinas is the daughter of a police officer and voted for money for the state police. McLeod-Skinner was at the protests in Portland. She was correct in her view of the feds death star sent. Btw, a black protester here in Salem was just awarded a million dollars for what she suffered from the police during the George Floyd protests. Several cases coming up in Portland or at trial now with no judgements yet.
Climate crisis is a symptom. Global warming is the cause. This has been clear to nearly 100% of legitimate clinate scientists since James Hansen’s analysis and modeling based on historical data proved the case in the 1980s. People who deny that, regardless of their choice of words, either have not looked into it or do not know how to estimate the reliability of information. The term “global warming” accurately states the fundamental problem. Terms like “climate crisis” describe the changes caused by the fundamental problem.
Yes! Language! Language! Language! RADICAL, not Conservative too, PLEASE.
Sadly, part of the "cynicism" of authoritarian followers assuming everyone is lying is the distrust of "experts," seen most clearly in the responses to hurricane Ian of residents marooned on their islands off Florida and in their houses along the coast who, when told they must evacuate, decided instead to hunker down and wait to see just how bad it would be...and then cried out for help and rescue when Ian proved to be as bad as the "expert" weather forecasters had predicted; "They have eyes to see but do not see, and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious house." Mark 8:18
I am reminded of when Sarah Palin railed against the educated and the intellectuals. Josef Stalin executed one million of his intellectuals. Fear of fact and knowledge leads to massive destruction of human life and thought.
The blame for the lack of evacuation orders falls squarely on DeSantis, though he will slither out of it. While I left Florida nearly 23 years ago, I know firsthand that hurricanes changing course in ways that defy prediction. A slight shift in direction, especially along the coast, can spell the difference between a stormy day and widespread destruction and death. Ian is a classic example.
As another escapee from Florida, I share your knowledge and opinion.
Same here.
Growing up at the southern end of Chesapeake Bay with parents who would set up nautical charts on the dining room table to track hurricanes that appeared to be heading up the Atlantic coast, I learned to think of hurricanes as being much like footballs, you never know which direction it may bounce when it hits the ground. We had a 30' sloop in a slip at the yacht club and my father wanted to be clear on what additional lines to add and how much slack he could afford to allow the boat to rise safely in higher water without bouncing off the pier or pilings. One year (1954, Hurricane Hazel, Cat 4), he borrowed a 50 lb. mushroom anchor and moored her out in the river and away from the pier. Worked effectively except for the thumbnail he lost when the anchor rolled on the deck as he prepared to set it.
I remember Hazel. Glad we lived furthe inlamd than the worst weather.
Love this quote.
I am reminded of another, from Saint Matthew: "Evil lives in the hearts of men."
Lifted by The Shadow: "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men; The Shadow knows ...."
Wow! You ARE taking me back! When I was a wee lad in the early 1950s, we listened to "The Shadow" on the radio. 1950-1952. Growing up where the family grouped around the radio to listen to programs such as "The Shadow", "Dragnet", "Boston Blackie" and other shows including Glenn Miller and big band was a great period to grow up. The mind was called to imagine (visualize) the events taking place. As a footnote, years ago while living in Boston a neighbor's dog was named Shadow. Of course, that young couple had heard enough "Shadow" commentaries!
Some of the press is splendid! As I explain to those who think I am in a bubble: I get good sources on MSNBC (frequently more intelligent than CNN, plus a source of as much Fox as one can bear), read WAPO and The NY Times, and occasionally whatever pops up (the Barents Observer). As a trained researcher, I can sort sources. But seeing clearly now how little history Americans know, how very insular we are, I am extremely worried, along with every American who is watching where we are being taken by the Big Lie and Putin, that we may never recover.
I agree that there is splendid journalism going on, and it is there if you look for it, but that journalism that matters seems less in the public spotlight than it once was. It seems to me that the role of the press changed with Reagan, out of whose hand they seemed to feed with "The Great Communicator" and plenty of ongoing deference that they had not shown to Nixon or Carter. I stopped watching commercial TV news in the run-up to the Bush II Iraq War, where the mainstream sources I followed were practically waving pompoms for conflict to begin, even as the Casus Belli was absurdly thin from the getgo; and which sources such as the Guardian, which I began reading, showed as fraudulent even before the bombing began. US reporting seemed complicit in a way it had not been in the Vietnam conflict. Similarly, the investigative reporting of Watergate somehow seemed to me more aggressive than for the much greater scandals of the Trump Era. Since "Jan 6th" this seems to have improved, but still somewhat timid given the gravity of events, or at least from I personally notice.
This is the "heart" that wouldn't work for me. I agree with you!
You cite a few sources. More a dribble than a firehose. Local papers are useless.
More and more local papers are owned by monopolies and are mostly propaganda sheets.
Most people cannot sort sources and now with the internet everyone is an expert on everything. I do agree that some of the press is splendid. I do like Lester Holt and we do watch the NBC news.
Then we share many of the same people - informed and making their way as best they can through the avalanche of daily news. And we have HRC as teacher, organizer, and checker!
Does factual truth matter…
While the weather is increasingly "wacko," the evidence that climate change could be an existential threat has been mounting for many years. Consistently, the most dire scientific models have proven to be shockingly accurate ones.
The horror of what's going to happen globally is beyond the imagination of most people, or their willingness to accept. As I've said before in this forum, our descendants will loathe us for what we have wrought and lacked the will to combat.
Last week on a program on either CNN or MSNBC, Chef Andres (World Central Kitchen) went off on quite an excellent and detailed rant summarizing exactly the wide-ranging interconnected threats that are rapidly bearing down on all of us, world-wide.
Does the party of death love its children? I guess not. They are too busy indoctrinating them to be against every one who is not like themselves. Instead of focusing on real problems, they are in a hissy fit because a fat black woman (who is also a classically trained flutist) played Madison's flute among other nonsense.
Just read an excellent article about Florida in Popular Information that delineates what DeSatan was doing in the last year when he should have been focused on climate chaos including making it extremely difficult for local areas to do anything themselves. The article ended by quoting him: "We are not doing any left-wing stuff." You know, like trying to mitigate climate chaos in your state....in addition to focusing on all sorts of cultural nonsense and those pesky asylum seekers.
what? was there some backlash against Lizzo?! I got look that up. wow.
Oh yes, right wingers having a hissy fit about a flute they had never heard of (and I hadn't either) before an overweight black woman played it. Suddenly it is as sacred as the national anthem.
I looked it up and I'm appalled any of them had anything to say. yuck.
Problem is that wacko weather is God-created, not human-assisted. At least, that's what I've heard people say. ("Many people are saying. . ." ;) )
WHUT??? Fossil-fueled. Read NOAA and what they say about all the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere helping to FUEL Hurricane Ian.
My sarcasm apparently didn't penetrate my written words. Many climate deniers (I know a few) believe that God and only God is responsible for anything going on in our atmosphere. We are living in a religious theocracy. It's scary.
I did get the sarcasm but there's a useful clue to use at the end of something like that.... /s
Thanks for the tip!
The press is not only “as culpable as the GOP” but as complicit with their lie-propelled drive towards an authoritarian form of government. Heather reminded us of how Trump’s 2016 campaign cross-haired Hillary’s private email server to vilify her in the eyes of the electorate. I vividly recall how the press and tv news programs gave ample coverage to his accusations while minimizing the monstrosity of HIS abnormal behaviors, closet skeletons and mafia-like economic “successes.” Not that I was a fan of Hillary (the Democratic Party should have ushered a stronger candidate), but had the news media equally highlighted all of Trump’s vices as they did Hillary’s emails, today he wouldn’t be tfg — and we wouldn’t be having this surreal conversation about the impending global-decimating catastrophe that hardly anyone is doing anything to stop!
The press is owned by billionaires, and run by millionaires. They make their money with clicks, and good news doesn't get clicks. Why would they want a peaceful, healthy, functioning world?
Fully agree! This explains the cynicism of the well informed... and the increased (bliss?) ignorance of so many others more.
I have NO idea what you were watching. BUT it certainly wasn’t what I was watching. I heard the TRUTH from Rachel Maddow and Ari Melber and Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC. You must have been watching Faux News by Rupert Murdoch.
Meanwhile, MSNBC's Morning Joe gave Trump hundreds of hours of free press and bottomless accolades without ever addressing what a nightmare we were entering into. Don't give MSNBC a free pass.
Yes. Joe is a Republican at heart, I believe. Even this morning, the coverage about the Dems chances in the mid-terms was negative. So much so that even I could see the bias. I've learned to take him with the salt lick (when a grain won't do).
Lots of crazy people on this thread. PU-LEASE
The letter is remarkably free of trolls. Please do not describe anyone with whom you happen to disagree as crazy or insane. People can emphatically disagree without using either of those words.
I didn’t have cable news back then. I did watch PBS Newshour daily (and still do), but the morning network (all three non-Fox) news programs were not equitable to both candidates. BTW, I never watch anything on Fox (not a single program).
I used to cringe whenever Andrea Mitchell came on as she was clearly against Hilary. I did wonder if Hilary had personally insulted her somehow.
It WAS ridiculous! When tfg started censoring some of the press at his briefings, I wondered if they ever wished they had been more fair to Hillary. She wouldn’t have ever banned journalists from her press briefings!
At some point, that would have had to be admission of culpability, and that wasn’t going to happen.
To be fair, a lot of us were against Hillary, for a long list of understandable reasons. For me, it was because she and Bill ushered in the era of neoliberalism which all but destroyed the party of FDR.
I agree, but to me it was choice between someone who was competent and does understand what service in government means and someone who should never have power. I have had many arguments with people who even after death star was occupying the WH, would not admit that maybe HRC was the better choice. Now we have a Supreme Court that is in the process of undoing years of hard progress and our democracy is on the brink of being an autocratic theocratic nightmare. This would not have happened with HRC and she would not have tried to destroy our foreign commitments and would have approached COVID much differently. So while HRC was not my first choice and I did not vote for her in the primary, I had no problem of voting for her in the general.
Well said, Michele. thanks!
Well, Holly, you WERE wrong about the Clintons ushering in the era of neoliberalism. And YES, it did destroy not just the Democrats but the entire United States. And many other countries around the world. Like, try Pinochet and Chile. And it came out of the University of Chicago: Neoliberalism began accelerating in importance with the establishment of the Mont Pelerin Society in 1947, whose founding members included Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Karl Popper, George Stigler and Ludwig von Mises. AND especially with Reaganomics. MILTON FRIEDMAN - LOOK HIM UP! 1947 is when neoliberalism was floated in, taking over the Keynesian theory of economics under which we were DOING FINE. But the main President & wife who debuted neoliberalism was REAGAN. Heard of Reaganomics? We're still living under that
You are surprised that Mrs. Alan Greenspan was pro-Trump?
I don't anything about Mitchell's personal life if she is the person to whom you are referring.
Are you INSANE?? Quite the opposite for Andrea Michell. She HATED Trump!
No, and I resent your remark about my being insane and all caps to boot. I was surprised actually, but it seemed to me she was dissing HRC, not praising her. That was my take at the time and it did bother me. I am sure she does hate death star and I am back to enjoying her reports.
You are insane. And I don't think you read enough. Or maybe at all.
Really. I read voraciously and live in a house full of books which are largely nonfiction. We both read all the time. I am well educated, well read, fairly intelligent and I don't appreciate silly inane insults like you have just delivered. I can't imagine what exactly you are trying to achieve here except being incredibly boorish. I do understand the difference between Keynes and Milton Friedman for example. I recently read an excellent book on Keynes, the left half was about his economics and the views of many other economists. I am reading now about neoliberalism in Britain with regard to the British Empire. Save your rancor for the far right radicals who are trying to destroy the country and belong to the party of death. Get over yourself.
The press is complicit in a different way: self-censorship. Every writer, editor, publisher, no matter what their political opinion, knows that the second they reveal the subject of climate change in their piece, they will lose about half their audience. So they try to shy away from an open discussion.
Just before the last election, I mounted an art exhibition on the subject of flooding due to the climate breakdown. We had 12 artists' work displayed in a huge white room flooded with a foot of water. Visitors picked their size of knee-high rubber boots, and entered wading through the show.
We had a good press list of 137 contacts, from art magazines, to local tv news, to community newsletters. How many covered our exhibition? Zero.
Two critics wrote about it after it closed.
https://fematrocities.com/
Jeff, I read about your art installation several months ago. I believe your concept was a wonderful way to have an interactive art exhibit. Please keep up the good work. There are people out there that need the message brought to them repeatedly in creative ways. Your continued work will be much appreciated.
Jeff, I very much wish that what you are saying wasn’t true; that the press does cover climate issues well or at least occasionally but I ‘d have to lie. Through my teeth.
Long after your exhibition had closed, I found a reference to it. Don’t remember where (I read lots of online art/culture magazines) but I do remember looking at the photos and thinking how powerful it was. I know how much effort it took to put that together. Thank you for all that you did and do to communicate about the most important issue of our time.
As for mainstream media that cover climate, The Guardian is best at it (George Monbiot doesn’t pull any punches!) followed by Robinson Meyer in The Atlantic. Occasionally writer Bill McKibben publishes something in The New Yorker but he also has a newsletter here on Substack called The Crucial Years. It is well worth reading. Beyond that, I follow climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe, who is also an evangelical Christian, because she is both adept at addressing fellow evangelicals who deny climate issues and calling people to action.
If renewable energy policy is your jam, try Energy News Network. Housed at Fresh Energy in St. Paul, MN, Energy News Network covers climate and energy issues across the country. You can find lots of truly local issues that have big impacts in national policy, along with analysis of the Inflation Reduction Act’s climate provisions. Proud to say I help found and find funding for Energy News years ago.
Wish we could use the tagline: “It’s the climate stupid!” Sigh. back to helping get out the vote!
Thanks for pointing out specific media outlets that cover the climate crisis in timely and comprehensive ways. I will add to your list Elizabeth Kolbert of the New Yorker. Besides articles for the magazine, her books about the topic are brilliant, richly reported accounts of what's happening, why, and the bleak future ahead. "Field Notes from a Catastrophe," published in 2006, was my wakeup call. I highly recommend her latest book, "Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future."
https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/elizabeth-kolbert
Thank you for all this info Sheila B MN!
It seems the simplest, most reliable way to understand and respond to climate deniers is to ask or find out how they make their money; SO MUCH of American enterprise is wrapped up in things which worsen climate change, from coal-burning and gas burning power-plants and furnaces, to internal-combustion driven vehicles, leisure vehicles (think motor boats, jet-skis, snowmobiles, 4-wheelers,... the list is nearly endless! Those who make a living from them stand to lose a lot, both financially as well as status and respectability if they agree that what they do contributes to worsening climate change. Think about it every time you start your car or turn on your furnace...and changing one's world-view can be VERY expensive!
We invited Bill McKibben to be on a panel discussion, or get involved in other ways, and he never responded.
I've just posted your website link on my FB page. Maybe the exhibit will receive some much belated recognition.
While it doesn’t cover everything, I find that the Sierra Club’s quarterly magazine has the absolute best coverage on our climate crisis. My small monthly donation to them is repaid 100-fold w the info they provide & more importantly, the initiatives they support.
Use it! The tagline is humorous enough to attract more supporters. Bumper sticker on electric vehicles? T-shirts, for sure.
As we talk about the press’s complicity, We need to remember under “news as entertainment” any talking head with a show is perceived to be a “journalist.” Remember Tuckems said in a lawsuit he was an entertainer? But how many viewers of Fox—or any news really—are able to (or even thinks to) judge who really IS journalist?
Yes! We are drowning in opinion and infotainment masquerading as journalism. 24 Hr News operations and social media churn out fragmented information with little context. This all helps create a reactive populace with incredibly short attention spans. This inability to focus really miltates against critical thinking and historical sense.
What an AMAZING exhibit, Jeff: literally IMMERSIVE! The video you link should be seen by everyone, and at the least by those in our LFAA forum. What a shame you were not flooded by extensive press coverage. Unfortunately, the bottom line (as many have pointed out here today) is money. As it refers to Art (with a capital "A"), when it is subservient to capitalism, it becomes a product of consumerism, and its artistic value is exponentially depreciated. We can't forget that Art is what renders us Human... and HUMANE. Art is an imperative for the survival of Civilization!
Jeff, fabulous exhibit. Keep sharing it this way. You were prescient. Loved the creative " immersion" experience. And amazing how quickly you got it together. Congratulations.
As you mentioned, I never think of Philadelphia and flooding in the same thought as I do here in Florida, but it can happen anywhere. After Ian we are in the middle of the very real thing.... only here the salt water comes crashing and the fresh water is brownish, full of debris and human waste, quickly growing mold and drowning people. The overwhelming power of water stirred!
Thank you for your labor of love and warning.
Wow!
...sorry to hear those details of your ordeal.
This is what happened to the Green Movement in California on 1990 too. Much activity, no press. Much sabatoge, much disinformation tying it to the Nazis, etc etc.
Powerful exhibition, even now, as a story to be shared. I will forward to others beyond this comment section. Let's all do the same. Art as change agent.
Agreed!
At least it was a really good article about your oh-so-important exhibition.
Incredibly moving and terrifying installation. Thanks so much for this work!
WOW!!!
How creative!
I wrote this comment below but thought it an appropriate response:
Here’s an example of great media coverage! I refer to CBS News reporter Margaret Brennan’s interview with Florida Sen Rick Scott. She was tenacious and insisted upon getting an answer to her questions regarding his opinion on racist and violent comments from tfg and mtg. Worth the watch!
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/rick-scott-face-the-nation-transcript-2022-10-02/#app
All of the lies (+ the calls to violence) ... and then we are repeatedly told "We need to bring people together."
We're all being gaslit.
Q: Who taught them how to do this so effectively?!
“Melanie” and her jacket.
His father and grandfather - both were Fred Trump. The Father did business with both Hitler and Stalin - selling them fuel suited for Hitler's airplanes. NAZIS
Thank you for sharing that clip. It gives me a real lift in spirit to see a tenacious push back. We all need to be doing that. And expecting that from newscasters and journalists.
Where are citizens confronting Rubio and Admitted Thief Scott? Are Floridians writing letters to the editor? Are they nagging local editors to examine the senators’ positions? Are they picketing their appearances and marching outside their local offices? Lots of people expect the press to take the lead, but it is up to us citizens to do that. When we do, then we can complain about the press (and there is plenty to complain about).
Jelly fish have more spine than Rubio.
I noticed that and Hair Gaetz also voted against aid. Do people in Florida even notice that their so-called representatives vote against their interests and ultimately for Florida to be livable.
NO, Floridians do NOT notice. They don't want to know. I grew up there - and left as soon as I could get out!!! And kept going!
Some of them do as evidenced by posts by people in Florida who read Heather's letter and comment here. Unfortunately, too many do not. When I was growing up in the midwest, Florida was viewed as some kind of paradise in much the same way as Arizona is viewed by people here in the PNW. I have been there once and that was all I needed to see to know that I could never ever live there.
I avoid even hearing about Fla. Sadly for people on the West Coast / Gulf side of Fla. were hit very very hard by Hurricane Ian. At least in the SW area of Florida. When you talk to people in areas OTHER THAN SW or like Ft. Myers - they really don't care. I mean, they care but DON'T really want to be bothered about it. "We're fine" Fla is just plain weird.
I would agree about the denial among many there. Some people in the interior also suffered wind and rain and the east side of Florida is not immune from hurricanes either. As far as I am concerned Florida is an ongoing mess in so many ways.
And as “religious” as all those gop are, it has me visualizing Matthew 4:9
“And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me!”
And the gop - unlike that guy from Nazareth- said “SURE !!! And what else can I do for you ?!?!”
I saw this comment on Yahoo about a week ago and am using it as much as I can to help it become widespread:
CINO
Christian In Name Only
Sadly, part of the "cynicism" of authoritarian followers assuming everyone is lying is the distrust of "experts," seen most clearly in the responses to hurricane Ian of residents marooned on their islands off Florida and in their houses along the coast who, when told they must evacuate, decided instead to hunker down and wait to see just how bad it would be...and then cried out for help and rescue when Ian proved to be as bad as the "expert" weather forecasters had predicted; "They have eyes to see but do not see, and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious house." Mark 8:18
Do you read Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald?
It should come as no surprise to Rubio, Scott, DeSantis, Trump and the like when the climate really changes and become far more harsh and the very flat and low-lying land of Florida goes under water to join the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. How will they deny that?
They’ll blame it on Biden
If that doesn't work, try Obama or Hillary. Anything for a deception and diversion.
Sadly, they likely no longer will be alive to reckon with their tyranny. They see climate change as a hoax.
The press. The way I see it is one - they are influenced by viewership. They will tend to report on issues that attract viewers. Sometimes, but not always, that means they spend too much time on issues that are not as important as other issues that don't make it to the top of the heap. And two - there is so much to choose from! The list of bad sh_t coming from the Republicans is so vast and endless, that they just can't cover it all! Some of us will get disappointed. Climate change is a perfect example. Although it is changing with each increasingly destructive and frequent weather event, climate change and climate denialism just doesn't get viewers jazzed up like other issues do, and it also gets flooded out by other big issues like the Mar-a-lago stuff.
Agreed. I had the same thought. The interviews I saw by MSN were as the rest; the aim is to solace the victim, present the story. But, never CONFRONTING the officialdom in the Desantis Admin. , at the right moment, of steps to take considering there is a fact of climate change. Make them say the words!
Monkey see, monkey do.
You mean "Skeletor" - aka Rick Scott, biggest Medicare fraudster EVER. His two buddies went to prison - he was elected governor of the state TWICE. He is grotesque. And "fondly" known by Democrats as Skeletor. UGH Also, of note, he cheated to win against Dem. Sen. Bill Nelson, a senator for ALL Floridians. A great guy, great office.
"True" journalists would not give Scott a pass. True journalists would call him out and put his feet on the fire. Cowardice has taken precedence over strength and courage. The truly bold among us, the truth seekers, are a token minority.