Introspection Warranted
On Wednesday the British publication The Guardian announced that it would no longer accept fossil fuel advertising. It said the decision was “based on the decades-long efforts by many in that industry to prevent meaningful climate action by governments around the world.” Some say this kind of action amounts to activism and compromises a publication’s journalistic credibility. They argue that news orgs have always relied on advertising money, and need it more than ever now, and that the practice has never compromised editorial independence.
Here at the Journal — which has never sought out or received ad money from the fossil fuel, plastics, or chemical industries (we barely run any ads in our publications) — we are all too aware that journalism is facing a financial crunch. But we also wonder: Are these critics really blind to the fact that Big Oil and other mega corporations have used and manipulated the media for decades to spread doubt about the real causes of climate change thorough those very ads? Don’t they realize how news organizations have been inadvertently complicit in spreading the disinformation seeded by Big Oil that has brought us to where we are today — on the brink of global-scale ecological collapse?
If it is beyond time for fossil fuel companies to reckon with their role in killing off life on Earth, perhaps it’s time for those of us who are in the business of helping build an informed citizenry to do the same. Kudos to The Guardian for its bold action!
Maureen Nandini Mitra
Editor, Earth Island Journal
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