A Canadian publication, The Free Press, consistently publishes contrarian and conservative voices to disparage climate activism and action. They use cherry-picked reports and misrepresent facts to paint the climate movement as out of touch and radical. This tactic is similar to Fox News’ coverage.
The Free Press published a piece in February about a proposed policy in Ottawa limiting residents from using remote car starters, which was used as an example that efforts to address climate change have gone too far. However, this reporting ignores the severity of the climate crisis and fails to present mainstream policies, such as renewable energy deployment, that are popular and effective.
In March, The Free Press published a story about the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to claw back $20 billion of congressionally appropriated climate funds. However, their piece largely represents the position of EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin that the funds were somehow fraudulent and pushes the Fox News narrative that the funding is a slush fund for the left.
However, facts contradict this narrative. The climate funds were legally appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 and grants were awarded through established procedures. The former EPA staffer who appeared in the video “has since said he was not referring to the $20 billion grant program.”
The Free Press also published a contrarian piece by a retired sustainability influencer, who lamented presenting Native American-led protests as “black and white” or “good versus evil.” However, she cited right-wing authors whose works frequently appear in media to downplay the climate crisis.
These examples demonstrate how The Free Press amplifies conservative climate denialism and promotes disingenuous reporting that fails to acknowledge the severity of the climate crisis.
Source: https://www.mediamatters.org/cbs/under-leadership-bari-weiss-free-press-climate-change-coverage-mirrors-right-wing-media-outlets