How Did Broadcast TV News Cover Environmental Justice Last Year? (Part I)
Media Matters: Corporate so-called "mainstream" broadcast TV news coverage of environmental justice dipped in quality, quantity ... and accountability
Evlondo Cooper | a Media Matters feature
Corporate broadcast TV news coverage of environmental justice dipped in both quality and quantity in 2022 compared to 2021. And like in previous years, last year’s coverage missed multiple opportunities to apply an environmental justice lens to key national stories that demanded more context about the complex harms that racism, economic exploitation, and environmental injustice have on vulnerable communities. Even the segments told through an environmental justice framework often failed to demand accountability for the public officials and industries responsible for environmental degradation or highlight solutions that exist to mitigate these harms.
Media Matters analyzed broadcast news coverage of any pollution impacts to the air, water, and soil — particularly those caused by the fossil fuel and chemical industries — as well as regulatory actions or environmental health hazards that impact specific demographic groups or communities, and counted mentions of at least one socially marginalized population as an environmental justice segment.
Media Matters analyzed the morning and evening news programs for ABC, CBS, and NBC from January 1 through December 31, 2022. In addition, weeknight episodes of PBS NewsHour were reviewed for a comparison point, but they were not included in the full dataset. This year’s study also includes the perspectives of journalists whose work either intersects with or focuses on environmental justice to learn how national TV news can develop and apply an environmental justice framework that consistently recognizes and contextualizes the experiences and challenges faced by low-income communities and communities of color.
Key Findings
From January 1 through December 31, 2022, corporate broadcast news shows — ABC, CBS, and NBC — aired a combined 12 segments about environmental impacts, regulations, or health hazards that included a mention of a socially marginalized community.
NBC and CBS tied for the most environmental justice segments (5), followed by ABC (2).
PBS NewsHour aired 10 environmental justice segments, however, these are not included in the full data set as PBS is publicly funded and the format of the program is different than that of its corporate counterparts. Weeknight episodes of the show were analyzed for a comparison point with other broadcast news shows.
The strongest environmental justice segments were stories about the adverse health effects of environmental pollution on marginalized communities.
Corporate broadcast news shows only aired 12 environmental justice segments in 2022, which is a substantial decrease from 2021
Corporate broadcast news shows aired 12 environmental justice segments in 2022. CBS and NBC tied for the most segments with 5 each, followed by ABC with 2.
Corporate broadcast news shows aired 12 environmental justice segments in 2022. CBS and NBC tied for the most segments with 5 each, followed by ABC with 2.
This is a decrease from 2021, which saw a marked increase in the quantity and quality of environmental justice segments when broadcast networks aired 19 such segments combined.
There were also fewer high-quality environmental justice segments on corporate broadcast TV news in 2022 than in 2021. Most environmental justice segments (8) were about the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi. However, most of these segments were brief demographic mentions that failed to contextualize the systemic ills that have plagued Black and poor residents of Jackson for decades, failed to connect the water infrastructure issues facing Jackson with similar challenges faced by communities of color across the country, and failed to demand accountability on their behalf.
2022’s Stronger Environmental Justice Segments Focused on the Health Impacts of Pollution
Despite the decrease in quantity and quality, broadcast networks in 2022 aired a few strong segments about how pollution harms the health of communities of color. The February 10, 2022, episode of ABC’s GMA3 hosted Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka to discuss the city’s efforts to replace nearly 23,000 lead-contaminated water lines within three years …
CBS Mornings aired a strong environmental justice segment on February 22, 2022, about a multi-billion dollar highway extension in Houston, Texas, that will dislocate thousands of residents, many of them Black and Hispanic. Notably, the segment discussed how similar infrastructure projects disproportionately harm communities of color across the country …
The December 22, 2022, episode of NBC Nightly News aired a segment about the Jackson water crisis that discussed an Environmental Protection Agency investigation of the state of Mississippi for potential violations of the Civil Rights Act stemming from Gov. Tate Reeves potentially redirecting resources to improve the water infrastructure from Jackson to smaller, white communities. The segment also featured EPA Administrator Michael Regan, who observed …
We know Black, brown, tribal communities, low-income communities have seen a lack of investment, but also are on the front lines of the impacts of these lack of investments and climate change …
Broadcast News Coverage in 2022 Missed Opportunities to Apply an Environmental Justice Lens to Major National News Stories
In what has been a yearly trend, national news shows missed opportunities to apply an environmental justice lens to several major national news stories. In many instances, PBS NewsHour covered issues that broadcast TV news shows largely ignored.
The Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA, announced on June 30, 2022, severely curtailed the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases. Broadcast news shows aired only a few segments about the ruling and even those missed an opportunity to report on it through an environmental justice frame. TV news reporting ignored the harm the fossil fuel industry causes to the air, land, and water of marginalized communities, omitted how the fossil fuel industry influenced the ruling, and overlooked the decision’s negative effect on the EPA’s ability to mitigate environmental injustice.
However, during the July 5, 2022, episode of PBS NewsHour, former EPA senior adviser for environmental justice and community revitalization Mustafa Santiago Ali discussed the ramifications of the Supreme Court’s ruling for vulnerable communities …
Biden Administration Environmental Justice Actions
The Biden administration sought to expand on its commitments to core environmental justice issues in 2022.
The Inflation Reduction Act, which was announced on July 27 and signed into law by President Joe Biden on August 16, 2022, allocated an historic $369 billion in climate and energy provisions. Some of the key provisions included expanding access to clean energy, as well as providing funding to low-income families for home energy efficiency upgrades and tax credits for electric vehicles. However, the package also drew criticism for allowing the ongoing development of fossil fuel infrastructure and shortchanging low-income communities and communities of color.
In 2022, Biden’s EPA also created a new national office designed …
[T]o better advance environmental justice, enforce civil rights laws in overburdened communities, and deliver new grants and technical assistance
… including overseeing the dispersal of a $3 billion block grant program for climate and environmental justice that was part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
The Biden administration’s efforts represent a sea change in how presidential administrations discuss environmental justice issues, but they have largely failed to receive substantive coverage. Corporate broadcast networks’ also failed to cover the IRA’s climate provisions, choosing to frame the historic legislation almost exclusively through a political lens.
Industrial Explosions, Leaks, and Spills
Every year, broadcast news shows air multiple segments about industrial accidents that routinely occur across the country. These stories ran the gamut from train derailments to oil refinery explosions to chemical plant fires and contamination.
Most of these segments are news briefs about a particular incident, and rarely do they contextualize the disproportionate impact these explosions, leaks, and spills have on low-income communities and communities of color. Not only do “more than 25 million people live within a mile of a crude-by-rail route,” according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, but a study produced by the organizations Coming Clean, The Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform, and the Campaign for Healthier Solutions also found:
These disasters are often presented as rote, inevitable facts of life when evidence suggests they don’t have to be. One notable exception is the June 8, 2022, episode of PBS NewsHour, which examined how the area around the Port of San Diego has become a hub of industrial pollution that is harming the health of the surrounding community …
Jackson Water Crisis
Broadcast news shows aired 8 segments about the Jackson water crisis that noted it is a majority Black city or has a poverty rate of 25%. However, these segments rarely told the deeper story about how the city’s legacy of racial and economic injustice has contributed to its ongoing water infrastructure problems.
The most recent crisis began after a boil-water notice was issued on July 30, 2022, because the city’s drinking water was potentially contaminated. In late August, Jackson took another blow to its water infrastructure after torrential rains caused the Pearl River to flood. Not only did the flooding temporarily displace residents, it also contributed to a complete system failure at the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant, making the water supply for 180,000 Jackson residents “entirely unsafe to drink” indefinitely.
Like coverage of the Benton Harbor water crisis in 2021, coverage of Jackson’s water crisis highlighted the limits of broadcast news’ understanding of environmental justice. Brief demographic mentions devoid of substantive context can hide the true scale of environmental injustices by siloing them away from the public’s broader understanding of how deliberate public policy decisions result in material harm to socially marginalized people every day. Siloing the water crises in Jackson, Benton Harbor, Newark, and Flint, among many others, also obscures the breadth and depth of the problems facing vulnerable communities across the country.
Although these connections are rarely made on corporate broadcast news shows, Robert Bullard, the father of environmental justice, articulated them during the September 12, 2022, episode of PBS NewsHour …