Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Extinction Rebellion is incensed that New York Times isn’t providing enough coverage of the climate crisis.

Arrests at protest over New York Times’ ‘unacceptable’ climate coverage

Protesters block avenue between Port Authority and NYT
Extinction Rebellion calls for better coverage of climate crisis

Amanda Holpuch in New York
 @holpuch
Sun 23 Jun 2019 06.14 AEST

A climate change protest orchestrated by the Extinction Rebellion activist group briefly blocked Eighth Avenue in New York on Saturday afternoon, between the Port Authority transit hub and the home of the New York Times.

The New York police department (NYPD) said 70 people were arrested as they called for more effective media coverage of the dangers of climate change, in a dramatic demonstration that saw people stage a die-in in front of the newspaper building and disrupt traffic in midtown Manhattan.

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One protester, Donna Nicolino, told the Guardian she was ready to be arrested, because “we want the New York Times as well as all the other media to treat climate change as the crisis it is”.

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“The lack of coverage of the climate crisis is completely unacceptable,” said Becca Trabin, a member of Extinction Rebellion’s press and fundraising teams. “It’s a public safety crisis on a global scale.”

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A spokeswoman for the New York Times, Danielle Rhoades Ha, said that in 2018 the newspaper published 795 articles about the climate, including investigative stories and dispatches from across the globe about the impact of climate change.

“There is no national news organization that devotes more time, staff or resources to producing deeply reported coverage to help readers understand climate change than The New York Times,” Rhoades Ha said.

“We fully support this group’s right to express their point of view, even when we disagree with it as it relates to our coverage.”

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/22/new-york-times-protest-climate-crisis-coverage

For once I agree with the New York Times. In my opinion the NYT has an almost unbroken track record of publishing ridiculous climate stories and even occasionally promoting violence against climate skeptics.

I mean its kind of funny when a group of green fanatics turns on another group of greens, accuses their rivals of not being ideologically committed enough, but what exactly do Extinction Rebellion and The Guardian expect NYT to do, to up their coverage of climate change?