Media Matters:

The wildfire media coverage over the three-day weekend and into Tuesday included horrifying images, footage, and accounts from those on the ground, and awestruck reporters onsite and in studios casting around for language that properly conveys the scope and magnitude of what is happening in California.

A Media Matters analysis found that the vast majority of corporate TV news coverage from September 5 through September 8 ignored the relationship between climate change and California’s wildfires.

  • Corporate broadcast TV outlets — ABC, CBS, and NBC — aired a combined 46 news and weather segments about wildfires on their morning and evening news shows from September 5 through September 8.
  • Seven of the 46 wildfire segments — 15% of them — mentioned climate change. However, four of the seven mentions were made by one reporter, CBS meteorologist and climate specialist Jeff Berardelli.
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