
Research/Study
Study: Fox News dominated cable news coverage of Willow Project announcement
CNN and MSNBC largely ignore one of the first major climate stories of 2023
Published
On March 13, the Biden administration approved the Willow Project, a highly contentious $6 billion proposal from ConocoPhillips to drill for oil and gas in Alaska. The project is expected to generate over 9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year and produce roughly 600 million barrels of oil over 30 years. The decision to greenlight the project was widely considered a “climate litmus test” for President Joe Biden, and it has faced fierce opposition by activists online and on the ground as a potential “carbon bomb” at a time when scientists warn that our dependency on fossil fuels must be drastically reduced to avoid catastrophe.
A Media Matters analysis from March 13-14 found that:
- Major TV news networks on cable – CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC – aired nearly 1 1/2 hours of total coverage and ran 31 segments combined on the decision to approve the Willow Project.
- Fox News (54 mins) spent more time covering the major climate story than CNN (16 mins) and MSNBC (15 mins) combined.
- Only 26% of the overall cable news segments on the Willow Project discussed its climate implications.