Last week I reported on Senators Brian Schatz (D. HI) and Bernie Sanders (I. VT) in taking a proactive approach to get the big news networks to cover climate change:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said on Tuesday the first action by a new Senate task force on climate change will be to push Sunday news programs on global warming coverage.
"Sen. [Brian] Schatz (D-Hawaii) and I are working on a letter" to send to networks, Sanders said during Tuesday's press conference announcing the new Senate Climate Action Task Force.
"Sunday news shows devoted all of eight minutes in 2012 to coverage of climate change issues, which is a decrease from nine minutes the year before."
"This is the greatest crisis facing our planet, and the major networks on their important Sunday news shows have devoted all of eight minutes to discuss that issue. That has got to change," Sanders added. - The Hill, 1/14/14
Well they're making progress:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) will meet with CBS News President David Rhodes on Wednesday, The Huffington Post has learned. CBS spokeswoman Sonya McNair confirmed the meeting, adding, "We routinely talk with lawmakers."
Sanders and Schatz announced earlier this month an effort to pressure networks to cover climate change. Seven Democratic senators joined them in a letter accusing the networks of turning a "cold shoulder" to climate on the Sunday shows.
In their appeal for more coverage, the senators cited statistics from Media Matters showing that the Sunday shows devoted only 27 minutes, combined, to climate change in all of 2013.
"Given the widely recognized challenge that climate change poses to the nation and the world, this is an absurdly short amount of time for a subject of such importance,” the senators wrote in their letter, addressed to top executives at Fox News, NBC, ABC, and CBS. - Huffington Post, 1/27/14
Lets give it up for Schatz and Sanders for taking initiative on this. Especially Schatz, who is running for a full term this year. Lets make sure he wins his primary so he can continue to fight climate change in the U.S. Senate:
http://brianschatz.com/