Media Matters:
The Supreme Court’s EPA ruling is a major blow for climate action. Here’s how national TV news should cover it
In reporting on the Supreme Court’s decision on West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, which effectively eliminated the agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases, national TV news must provide crucial context, explaining that it's a victory for the fossil fuel industry, its political backers, and its right-wing media supporters.
The Supreme Court’s ominous recent decisions on abortion rights and gun control have rightly garnered a great deal of attention from the news media, but the court’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA is on par with these other rulings in terms of impact. Not only will it severely hamper the executive branch’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases, but it could also drastically limit federal agencies' rulemaking ability. And, as such, TV news should cover it widely and substantively.
This decision is especially concerning because the fossil fuel industry has been using the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine to call for continued and deepened reliance on the very products that are driving climate-fueled weather events such as the ongoing drought in the western United States, record-breaking wildfires in New Mexico, and the recent unprecedented heat waves that have gripped large swaths of the country. Rather than ignoring this backdrop, TV news must contextualize coverage of the decision with the current state of the climate crisis, which includes discussing how it will inhibit our ability to curtail irreversible warming.
Although national TV news has made some improvements in the quantity and quality of its climate coverage, outlets still largely fail to cover climate change as a political issue and to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable. Because this ruling is such a momentous decision, they must inform their viewers how and why the ruling was made and what it portends for necessary action to stave off the worst consequences of climate change. Here are three ways news outlets can rise to the grim occasion.
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Report that the decision is a victory for the fossil fuel industry’s decadeslong strategy.
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Be clear about what this means for the EPA’s ability to regulate climate change — and what paths remain for federal climate action
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Amplify climate experts and advocates who have expertise in climate litigation and policy
https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/supreme-courts-epa-ruling-major-blow-climate-action-heres-how-national-tv-news