TV interviewers have asked the candidates 3,000 questions -- 6 have been about global warming

[DeepModem Mom]

Salon: TV news is too cool
Major TV interviewers have asked presidential candidates 3,000 questions -- only six of them have been about global warming.
By Katharine Mieszkowski

....The League of Conservation Voters analyzed transcripts of TV interviews and debates with the Democratic and Republican candidates. The interviews were conducted by CNN's Wolf Blitzer, ABC's George Stephanopoulos, MSNBC's Tim Russert, Fox News' Chris Wallace and CBS's Bob Schieffer. As of Jan. 25, these five prime-time journalists had conducted 171 interviews with the candidates. Of the 2,975 questions they asked them, only six mentioned the words "climate change" or "global warming." To put that in perspective: three questions mentioned UFOs.

"Global warming is unequivocally one of the biggest issues facing the nation and the planet, and one of the issues that the next president will have the greatest impact on. And yet we've gone through the longest presidential primary in our nation's history, and these reporters are ignoring the most pressing issue," says Navin Nayak, director of the global warming program of the League of Conservation Voters. Environmental and progressive groups, such as the Sierra Club, MoveOn.org, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Wildlife Federation, have joined the League of Conservation Voters in asking their members to sign a petition demanding that these reporters, who have such great access to the presidential contenders, do a better job of quizzing them about climate change. So far, more than 200,000 people have signed the petition....

Even Americans who aren't self-styled environmentalists or progressives want action from their leaders on global warming. An October 2007 Democracy Corps poll found that "doing nothing about dependence on foreign oil and global warming" was one of the top five reasons that both Democrats and independents think that the country is headed in the wrong direction. Notably, those independent voters, who will be so important to winning the White House in November, were even more likely than Democrats to say so, according to the poll....

***

...(I)t's clear that many candidates want to make global warming an issue in the campaign and on the stump. "On the Democratic side, you can rarely go to a Democratic stump speech and not hear the words 'global warming,'" says Nayak. Obama has run TV ads in California in advance of the Super Tuesday primary that focus on climate change, while Clinton has run ads in California championing wind, solar and biofuels. At one campaign stop in New Hampshire, McCain got onstage, grabbed a sign from the audience that said, "Stop global warming," and announced that this would be one of his top priorities.

Invariably, though, interviewers fail to quiz the candidates about what they pledge to do to fight global warming, what it will cost to do so, and how they'll muster the bipartisan support to make any plans a reality....

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/01/28/global_warming_tv/

[endarkenment]

1. It aint on the agenda. What is?

The last Democratic debate featured 'questions' like:

"The Surge Is Working! respond."

[madrchsod]

2. the last three democratic debasements

were sponsored by a "big coal" front organization