• Broadcast morning and evening news shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC aired a combined 153 segments about environmental impacts, regulations, or health hazards in all of 2021, and just 19 of them (12%) included mention of a socially marginalized community.

• CBS aired the most environmental justice segments (13), followed by NBC (4), and ABC (2).

• While not included in the official results, PBS NewsHour aired 13 environmental justice segments.

• The majority of environmental justice segments focused on government action (14) and the health impacts of pollution or chemical waste (9).

• Topics such as industrial accidents (2) and disaster recovery (3) were rarely reported through an environmental justice lens.

• National TV news shows missed key opportunities to apply an environmental justice lens to important national stories such as the 2021 Texas winter storm, a toxic wastewater leak in Florida, and the Colonial pipeline hack.

• Even segments about obvious environmental justice stories, such as the lead water crisis in Benton Harbor, Michigan, were mostly shallow and lacked important context.

Corporate broadcast TV news networks aired 19 environmental justice segments in 2021. CBS, which clearly outpaced the other broadcast networks, aired the highest number of such segments (13), followed by NBC (4), and ABC (2).

Corporate broadcast news networks aired 19 environmental justice segments in 2021

Network
Total environmental pollution segments
Mentioned effects on socially marginalized communities
Percentage

ABC
43
2
5%

CBS
57
13
23%

NBC
53
4
8%

 
153
19
12%

This represents a clear quantitative improvement over 2020, when broadcast networks aired only 4 such segments combined. In fact, 2021 is tied for the highest number of environmental justice segments aired since 2017, when broadcast networks also aired 19.

Combined broadcast news environmental justice segments aired from 2017 to 2021

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021

19
2
5
4
19

The environmental justice segments that aired in 2021 were also qualitatively better than in years past. For example, most of 2017’s environmental justice segments were focused on Indigenous opposition to the development of fossil fuel infrastructure such as the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines or the Trump administration's decision to shrink the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. However, these segments often failed to substantively discuss the long-term harms that pipelines and mining have on the water and soil of the surrounding Indigenous communities. 

In contrast, corporate broadcast news in 2021 did a better overall job producing environmental justice segments that examined the systemic ills plaguing vulnerable communities forced to live with the consequences of environmental degradation.

CBS Mornings aired a strong segment on April 1, 2021, about how the developers of the Byhalia pipeline were pressuring Black homeowners in Memphis, Tennessee, to give up their land or have it taken via eminent domain. The pipeline also posed a threat to the city's groundwater, which draws from a deep aquifer and is considered among the highest quality in the world. The segment featured local homeowners and activists from Memphis Community Against the Pipeline, now known as Memphis Community Against Pollution, who detailed why the project and the developer’s actions were clear examples of environmental racism. (In July, the developers announced that they were canceling the pipeline.)

The June 17, 2021, episode of NBC’s Today featured a segment about how the low-income residents of McDowell County, West Virginia, were finding it difficult to find clean drinking water due to government neglect of water infrastructure and potential pollution from nearby natural gas drilling.

ABC’s World News Tonight aired a segment on April 23, 2021, about the Snake River, which runs through four states in the Pacific Northwest and is considered by some environmentalists to be the most endangered river in America because the salmon are near extinction due to a series of man-made dams. The segment briefly featured Shannon Wheeler, chairman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee, who spoke to what is at stake for his tribe, because “ if the salmon are gone, that’s the way we go, too.”

Despite these notable examples, broadcast news shows again missed opportunities to apply an environmental justice lens to several highly covered news stories. 

Biden administration environmental justice actions

In 2021, the Biden administration made commitments to core environmental justice issues such as improving water and air quality, Superfund cleanup, and environmental enforcement. The administration also created the Justice40 Initiative, which “committed to delivering 40 percent of the overall benefits of Federal climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, clean water, and other investments to disadvantaged communities that have been historically marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution.”

Although former President Donald Trump drove much of the environmental justice coverage in 2017, mostly due to his decision to shrink the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, President Joe Biden did not receive comparable coverage for his environmental justice initiatives from the corporate broadcast networks in 2021. 

In comparison, PBS NewsHour aired a notable segment on October 11, 2021, about the Biden administration’s order to restore the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Bears Ears National Monuments, which overturned the Trump administration’s 2017 decision. The segment featured Nick Martin, Indigenous affairs editor for High Country News, who discussed the importance of preserving sacred cultural sites from environmental degradation.

2021 Texas winter storm

Corporate broadcast news often fails to contextualize the socioeconomic realities that make low-income and minority communities less able to afford the economic costs of evacuating, rebuilding, or relocating associated with extreme weather events. These inequities are often compounded by discriminatory practices in receiving federal aid. 

For example, millions of Texans were left without power for days after a devastating winter storm in February 2021 resulted in nearly $300 billion in damage. It is officially estimated that almost 250 Texans died in the disaster, while some experts believe the toll is much higher. Although climate change created the conditions for the storm, its widespread yet disparate harms also made it an environmental justice story. According to a New York Times story published in February 2021:

Although there were multiple segments about the winter storm and subsequent blackouts from the corporate broadcast networks, none made the connection. The only segment that made the environmental justice connection aired during the February 18, 2021, episode of PBS NewsHour featuring longtime environmental justice researcher and activist Robert Bullard, who spoke to the disproportionate economic difficulties Black residents confronted in the wake of the devastating storm.

Toxic wastewater leak in Florida

Broadcast news shows in 2021 aired multiple segments about industrial accidents that occurred across the country. Most of these segments were news briefs about a particular incident, and very few contextualized the disproportionate harm these explosions, leaks, and spills do to low-income communities and communities of color.

For example, in early April 2021, hundreds of residents in Manatee County, Florida, had to evacuate because a shuttered fertilizer plant in the Tampa Bay area threatened the surrounding groundwater, soil, and local water supply. The reservoir at the Piney Point plant, which leaked millions of gallons of toxic wastewater, fortunately, never fully breached. 

Like many industrial chemical sites, this plant has a long history of polluting the surrounding community. According to The Guardian:

CBS Evening News was the only broadcast news show to mention that toxic plants and leaks are sited near vulnerable communities; during the April 5, 2021, episode, environmental activist Brook Armstrong noted that containment pods are often located in low-income communities.

Colonial pipeline hack

Colonial’s handling of one of the largest gasoline leaks in American history, which was discovered by two teenagers in Huntersville, North Carolina, in August 2020, was already a local scandal well before the company announced on May 8, 2021, that it was under a ransomware attack from Eastern European hackers. The Colonial Pipeline cyberattack and its ramifications quickly became a national story during the next week, while the company’s devastating gas leak never became part of that larger coverage. As Nakisa Glover, the Hip Hop Caucus Think 100% climate and environmental justice organizer near the Colonial gas leak, told Media Matters last May:

The residents of Benton Harbor, Michigan – the majority of whom are Black and poor – have been under a state advisory since late 2018 because of high lead levels in the city’s water. 

After nearly four years of silence, broadcast news first began covering the crisis on October 12, 2021, after a petition to the Environmental Protection Agency forced the state to provide the residents of Benton Harbor with bottled water. Most of the segments focused on the buck passing between state and local officials. CBS was the only network that framed the water crisis in Benton Harbor as an environmental justice story, airing two segments that featured local activists, including the Rev. Edward Pinkney, and EPA Administrator Michael Regan. In fact, CBS Evening News aired a segment on December 16 that explicitly connected the Biden administration’s allocation of funds to replace lead pipes with the lead crisis in Benton Harbor, and even challenged Regan to answer, “When will people in these communities actually see change?”

However, most other coverage failed to frame the story around environmental justice, leaving out important context about who was being harmed and why. To help viewers understand the scope and magnitude of the lead problem, segments about the water crisis in Benton Harbor should have brought accountability to those responsible for the poisoned water, and a strong environmental justice story must do much more than provide brief demographic mentions while excluding the millions of people from across the country who are exposed to lead via their water supplies – especially when  a disproportionate number of them are Black or low income. According to EcoWatch:

The coverage of Benton Harbor highlights the limits of broadcast news’ understanding of environmental justice. Presented with a story that encapsulated how America’s legacy of racial and economic injustice produces disproportionately poor outcomes for marginalized communities, national TV news shows largely chose anodyne framing about a government’s failure to deliver potable water to its residents. This distinct failure to include vital context for broadcast news audiences also, in no small part, hides the true scale of environmental injustices by siloing them away from the public’s broader understanding of policies that materially harm socially marginalized people every day.

Giving voice to those from socially marginalized communities who are working to advance climate and environmental justice is something corporate TV news rarely, if ever, does. People of color made up a dismal 18% of those featured in network news climate segments in 2021. 

Including the voices of those directly affected by water pollution, air pollution, and exposure to toxic and hazardous substances, as well as those fighting and organizing to stop these environmental harms, must form the core of environmental justice reporting. With that in mind, Media Matters decided to incorporate the perspectives of some of the activists and leaders who were featured in environmental justice segments in 2021.

Sandra Jones has been serving the community in Flint, Michigan, for years as CEO of the R.L. Jones Community Outreach Center, which provides food, water, and hygiene products, among many other services. Jones appeared in a segment that aired during the January 14, 2021, episode of PBS NewsHour to discuss the indictment of ex-Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, among eight others, for criminal malfeasance related to the Flint water crisis.

During our wide-ranging and engaging conversation, Jones discussed her aspirations for the NewsHour segment and the need for the world to know that despite many ongoing hardships, the people of Flint are resilient. She continued:

Intentionality and ownership were themes echoed during my conversation with Queen Quet, the first Queen Mother and official spokesperson for the Gullah/Geechee Nation – “people from numerous African ethnic groups linked with indigenous Americans” who live along the coast from Jacksonville, North Carolina, to Jacksonville, Florida. Queen Quet and the Gullah/Geechee people were featured in a two-part segment that aired on ABC’s Nightline in November 2021.

Although this segment aired outside of the parameters of our methodology, it was such a quality piece of journalism on issues of environmental and climate justice that we wanted to interview Queen Quet to glean her unique insights about the segment and those subjects more broadly. The interview was wide-ranging and informative, especially since Queen Quet has been a prominent media figure for years. Media Matters began by asking her to discuss her impressions of the Nightline segment, and she told us:

Reflecting on her positive experience with Nightline, especially how well it was received within her community, Media Matters asked Queen Quet to speak to the differences between a long-form segment, which a show like Nightline can produce, versus the shorter time constraints that are more typical for broadcast morning and evening news shows. Her answer was illustrative:

We ended the conversation by asking Queen Quet what she would recommend to others seeking national media attention about an environmental justice story. And she responded with a powerful message for environmental justice advocates and activists:

At the end of our interview with Queen Quet, she left us with a statement that should inform how all news outlets approach their work: “People in power have to feel some discomfort when they see these stories.”

Unfortunately, when broadcast TV news deigns to cover an environmental justice story at all, it too often lacks accountability for the industries polluting the air, land, and water, while seeking to avoid responsibility for the harm that results -- and the public officials who look away.

National TV news must expand its reporting about how environmental pollution and regulations impact specific socially marginalized communities, including why they are all too often at greater health risks, and what public policy solutions exist to address these challenges. Instead of siloing this reporting, broadcast news must apply a framework that fully incorporates and contextualizes the experiences and challenges faced by low-income communities and communities of color. This includes reporting on how environmental justice intersects with people’s everyday lives; connecting environmental consequences to political and corporate policies and practices that lead to inequitable harms; contextualizing the disproportionate impacts of environmental injustice to the systemic inequalities and injustices that shape them; and amplifying the voices of those from frontline communities.

Adopting this approach to better inform the public could play a pivotal role in shaping public policy responses that ensure local, state, and federal governance develop and implement effective and equitable plans to confront the climate crisis that also value the life and well-being of every person, especially the most vulnerable and marginalized.

Media Matters searched transcripts in the Nexis database for the national morning and evening news programs on ABC, CBS, and NBC for segments that mentioned specific environmental pollution impacts, regulations, or health hazards using any of the terms “chemical,” “pollution,” “air pollution,” “particulate matter,” “ozone,” “smog,” “soot,” “asthma,” “fossil fuel,” “oil,” “coal,” “fracking,” “natural gas,” “air quality,” “carbon emission,” “greenhouse,” “water pollution,” “contaminant,” “Superfund,” “environment,” “health hazard,” “drill,” “contamination,” “Environmental Protection Agency,” “EPA,” “climate change,” “global warming,” “climate crisis,” “carbon footprint,” “pollutant,” “toxin,” “toxic,” “hurricane,” “tropical storm,” or “flood” from January 1 through December 31, 2021.



We reviewed segments, which we defined as instances when environmental impacts, regulations, or health hazards were the stated topic of discussion or when we found “significant discussion” of environmental impacts, regulations, or health hazards. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers discussed environmental impacts, regulations, or health hazards with one another.



To determine how broadcast news programs told stories about environmental impacts that are overwhelmingly borne by poor and minority communities, we reviewed the identified segments for any mentions of any of the demographic and socio-economic terms “White,” “Black,” “African American,” “American Indian,” “Alaska Native,” “Latino,” “Hispanic,” “Indigenous,” “low income,” “poor,” or “immigrant.”



To count as an environmental justice segment, it had to connect the environmental impact, regulation, or health hazard to a specific “race, color, national origin, or income,” per the Environmental Protection Agency’s definition of environmental justice. We analyzed the identified segments for whether they mentioned that the environmental pollution impact, regulation, or health hazard affected a fixed community or population.