Corporate TV news’ sparse coverage of IPCC report largely ignored climate impacts of controversial Willow drilling project
Written by Evlondo Cooper
Research contributions from Ted MacDonald
Published
Corporate TV news had another critical opportunity to educate the public about the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels following the recent release of the latest report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). However, coverage failed to connect the report to the Willow project, a controversial oil and gas site that was approved for drilling one week before the IPCC released its latest warning.
National TV news must provide more context and inform the public about the real-world implications of the report from the United Nations panel, especially in regard to controversial projects like Willow.
How national TV news covered the IPCC report and the Willow project
Despite the urgency and significance of the IPCC report, national TV news did not cover it in-depth and largely failed to connect it to the controversial Willow project. A Media Matters analysis from 9 a.m. ET on March 20 to 9 a.m. ET on March 23 found that major cable networks aired 10 segments about the report and only 3 mentioned the Willow project. CNN led on both mentions and report coverage, airing 5 segments on the report, 2 of which mentioned Willow, and MSNBC mentioned Willow in 1 of 2 segments on the report. Although Fox covered the report, all of its 3 segments mocked its findings and attacked the science underpinning climate change and none of them mentioned Willow.
Corporate broadcast networks aired only 3 segments about the IPCC report, and none of them mentioned Willow. ABC led with 2 segments, followed by NBC with 1. CBS did not cover the IPCC report at all.
National TV news has the potential to shape public opinion and drive action on climate change and therefore has a crucial role to play in holding the fossil fuel industry and politicians accountable for their role in exacerbating the crisis. Making these connections is one of the key actions climate correspondents can take whenever they are asked to discuss major climate news.
During both of his appearances to discuss the IPCC report, CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir made sure to mention how the Willow project would exacerbate our current climate challenges. For example, during the March 20 episode of CNN Newsroom, Weir discussed what the IPCC concluded about the fossil fuel industry and connected Willow to nation-states’ reluctance to transition away from fossil fuels.
Citation From the March 20, 2023, episode of CNN Newsroom Live
During a segment about the IPCC report on the March 21 episode of MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, host Andrea Mitchell asked her guest, prominent climate scientist Michael Mann, to share his thoughts about the Biden administration’s decision to approve the Willow project. In his answer, Mann noted that the decision was incongruent with the administration’s stated policy goals and in opposition to the IPCC report’s conclusions.
Citation From the March 21, 2023, episode of MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports
However, the overall lack of coverage of the IPCC report and the failure to connect it to the Willow project represents a missed opportunity to demand accountability from the fossil fuel industry and the Biden administration for its continued support for new fossil fuel infrastructure.
Connecting the IPCC report to the Willow project: A missed opportunity in national TV news coverage
The IPCC's latest report emphasized the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. However, the Willow project, which is expected to produce 180,000 barrels of oil per day at its peak, would add at least 263 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the next 30 years. The project's approval contradicts the Biden administration's climate goals, which include reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 by transitioning to clean energy sources. In fact, calling the administration’s overall climate record “mixed” would be generous. According to New York Times columnist David Wallace-Wells:
American emissions have been declining steadily since 2005, primarily because of natural gas replacing coal for electricity generation. But the decline has been relatively slow and pockmarked by concessions to the fossil fuel industry and climate hypocrisy. Last year, as the U.S. climate envoy John Kerry lectured the nations of sub-Saharan Africa about the risks of fossil fuel development, the United States approved more oil and gas expansion than any other nation in the world, according to Oil Change International. It is already the world’s largest producer of oil and gas and the third-largest consumer of coal. This year, it will also become the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas.
Those gas exports are expected to more than double by the end of the decade. And farther out, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that oil and gas will remain the country’s biggest sources of energy at midcentury, when the country has formally pledged to be net zero, with oil production continuing to grow over that time. In its first two years, the Biden administration approved more oil and gas permits than the Trump administration had at that point. And while the Inflation Reduction Act has been rightly hailed as the most significant piece of climate legislation the country has ever produced, even some optimistic analyses suggest it might not reduce domestic oil production by even a single barrel over the next decade.
The release of this IPCC report provided a perfect pretext to examine the fossil fuel industry’s efforts to deepen demand for its dirty products and the Biden administration’s contradictory record on climate action. But national TV news mostly failed to contextualize the Willow project’s recent approval within the framework of the IPCC report.
Thus viewers may not have learned how much the project could contribute to global warming and could form opinions in favor of the project that contradict climate goals. A recent Morning Consult poll found that 48% of surveyed adults supported the Willow project with only 27% opposed. The poll also found that 42% of respondents agreed that the “positive economic impacts of oil developments outweigh negative environmental impacts.”
National TV news must hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for exacerbating the climate crisis
National TV news has a responsibility to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for its role in exacerbating the climate crisis, including by analyzing how projects like Willow fit into the broader picture of global emissions and the need for climate action. That should occur especially during key moments such as the release of an IPCC report.
Reporters could also question policymakers and industry leaders about how they plan to reconcile their conflicting interests and highlight the risks associated with fossil fuels. They could investigate and report on the industry's lobbying efforts, its contribution to emissions, and its resistance to transitioning to renewable energy sources.
National TV news must also inform the public about the viable solutions available to combat climate change, such as transitioning to renewable energy sources and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. By holding the fossil fuel industry accountable, national TV news shows can help to mobilize public support for climate action and put pressure on policymakers to prioritize meaningful proposals.
Methodology
Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on cable news networks CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News Channel as well as all original episodes of ABC’s Good Morning America and World News Tonight, CBS’ Mornings and Evening News, and NBC’s Today and Nightly News for either of the terms “climate” or “warming” within close proximity of any of the terms “report,” “study,” “IPCC,” “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,” “United Nations,” or “U.N.” or any variations of the term “science” from 9 a.m. ET March 20, 2023, when the IPCC released its latest report, through 9 a.m. ET March 23, 2023.
We counted segments, which we defined as instances when the IPCC report was the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of the IPCC report. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed the IPCC report with one another. We also included headline reports, which we defined as instances when an anchor, host, or correspondent read a short news report about the IPCC report in rapid succession with several unrelated stories.
We did not include passing mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker discussed the IPCC report without another speaker engaging with the comment, or teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about the IPCC report scheduled to air later in the broadcast.
We then reviewed those segments for any mentions of the Willow project.