Kip Hansen – June 16, 2022

The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) at Columbia University  which supports the  climate propaganda organ, Covering Climate Now (CCNow), has announced its Bizarro World-based “2022 Covering Climate Now Journalism Award”.  Of course, calling it a “journalism award” is oxymoronic – what these people produce is the opposite of journalism, it is the worst kind of propaganda:

propaganda, dissemination of information—facts, arguments, rumours, half-truths, or lies—to influence public opinion.  Propaganda is the more or less systematic effort to manipulate other people’s beliefs, attitudes, or actions by means of symbols (words, gestures, banners, monuments, music, clothing, insignia, hairstyles, designs on coins and postage stamps, and so forth). Deliberateness and a relatively heavy emphasis on manipulation distinguish propaganda from casual conversation or the free and easy exchange of ideas.   [ source: Britannica.com ]

The overall emphasis that makes the type of reporting being insisted upon by CJR and Covering Climate Now is that it is more-than-deliberate, it is organized and coordinated, and admittedly intended to manipulate public opinion, attitudes and actions.

If you are uncertain that this is true, you only need to look at what CCNow did during the last U.S. National Elections:

“With just weeks until the US elections, Covering Climate Now and its media partners are shining a light on politics and climate: Why are the 2020 elections so critical for climate in the US and globally? What are the most important elections for climate? How are young voters changing the conversation? To address these questions and more, CCNow has launched a #ClimatePolitics2020 joint coverage week, running September 21 – 28. To kickoff the week, a number of partners have elevated the voices of the young people whose lives will be most shaped by the climate crisis.”

They widely distributed such stories as:

“As the wildfires in the Western US have made abundantly clear, the climate crisis is here and requires action now.”

“A second Trump term would be ‘game over’ for the climate, says top scientist”

“Kentucky’s climate is suffering. Can the state slip the industry ties that prevent change?”

“These Races Will Shape What the US Elections Mean for Climate Progress”

“Facebook Loophole Allows Climate Deniers to Spread Misinformation”

These stories, many in foreign (non-U.S.) newspapers, all were aimed at manipulating the vote in the 2020 elections.

Now, newspapers and media outlets are allowed to, even expected to, write or broadcast the opinions and political views of their owners – but only on the editorial page or in segments clearly marked as Commentary or Opinion or Editorial.  When they do so on the pages, or in broadcast segments, presented as “news” – as journalism – it is a bold and calculated violation of the ethics standards of professional journalism.  Even the wildly inaccurate and biased NPR has a code of ethics, which is obviously simply ignored when reporting U.S. politics, climate, or the culture wars.

CCNow has current ongoing mis- and disinformation campaigns (of which it is quite proud):

Food & Water:  How is climate change affecting the food we eat and the water we drink? From June 27 to July 1, CCNow and our partners will dive into this question.

Climate & Democracy:  Ahead of Earth Day, CCNow partners explored how the erosion of democratic systems the world over is impacting our ability to solve the climate crisis.

Climate Crimes:  A series by CCNow and the Guardian investigates Big Oil’s complicity in the climate crisis and examines attempts to hold the fossil-fuel industry accountable.

You may think that a few raving activists at Columbia (forever a hotbed of nuttiness) won’t have much of an impact – and you would be oh-so-wrong!  CCNow pumps these stories out to hundreds of major media outlets in over 50 countries.  See their Partners list.  Look for the pernicious twisted stories and biased reporting – it will show up even in your little local community weekly newspaper courtesy of CCNow’s free story sharing service.

Under the headline:  The 2022 Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards Honor Superior Coverage of the Biggest Story of Our Time:

“For the second year in a row, the global media collaboration Covering Climate Now is honoring journalists doing the strongest coverage of the onrushing climate emergency and its abundant solutions. Winners of the 2022 Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards include journalists at the Guardian, Agence-France Presse, Al Jazeera English, PBS NewsHour, Globo, and HBO Max, as well as The Third Pole, Grist, the Post and Courier, the Los Angeles Times, and WGBH-PRX. Justin Worland, senior correspondent for TIME, was named Climate Journalist of the Year.”

“Cutting edge journalists and newsrooms are increasingly grasping the urgency of the climate story, reporting it on the ground, and informing people and policymakers who can drive solutions,” said Kyle Pope, the editor and publisher of Columbia Journalism Review and the chair of the CCNow Awards judging process. “By honoring the best of this reporting, we hope to inspire fellow journalists everywhere to emulate the work of these exceptional colleagues.”

When your child comes home from school blubbering about how the world is going to end “because of climate change”; when your teenager tells you they will never marry or have children “because of climate change”; when your 20-something drops out of college and goes on the bum because “what’s the use?  climate change”, you know who to blame.

The awards are given to those propagandists most responsible for the newly emerging mental illnesses:  Climate Anxiety, Climate Despair,  and the utter Malthusian madness that is manifest in the climate warriors movements.

So, Congratulations! to Justin Worland (of whom I have never heard, neither have I ever seen or read even a passing reference to his work before today). He is apparently famous in certain circles of those suffering from climate-induced delusions.

And of course, the Ministry of Climate Propaganda and the Ministry of Truth would like to thank Justin and the following fake-news outlets for their support:  Guardian, Agence-France Presse, Al Jazeera English, PBS NewsHour, Globo, and HBO Max, as well as The Third Pole, Grist, the Post and Courier, the Los Angeles Times, and WGBH-PRX.

# # # # #

Author’s Comment:

Such a perversion of journalism reminds me of what I have read about the worst days of yellow journalism and seen in the Pravda-like press in un-free countries.   It seems more and more that the “free press” in the West has been compromised by the political and cultural stances of their owners and their journalists – journalists who are no longer held to exacting standards of accuracy and fair-handedness (if they ever were….).  Now they are awarded for slander, misinformation, disinformation and cultural correctness.

Nonetheless, I have confidence that the future will be better than the past.

Read more, read widely, read critically.

And thanks for reading here.

Kip Hansen is a member of the CO2 Coalition as well as a science research journalist and contributing expert on sea level and sea-level rise.

Originally published here at Watts Up With That? (WUWT) on June 16, 2022.