It’s easy to miss $14 trillion dollars if nobody reports on it. The World Economic Forum called for $14 trillion in environmental initiatives, yet none of the three major networks even mentioned it in their evening news segments from January 22, or their morning news segments from January 23. They even failed to mention that there was a conference at all.
The proposed spending would add up to about $700 billion a year until 2030, the British news outlet The Independent reported on January 22. Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who leads the Green Growth Alliance, argued that investing this type of money would be offset by reducing the damage caused by climate change.
The Davos conference is always a major global event. According to USA Today “Some 2,655 business leaders, politicians, academics, billionaires, artists and would-be world-changers are attending the gathering … this year. More than 800 of them are from the U.S.” Yet, ABC, CBS and NBC failed to mention the conference at all.
The Forum is a meeting of some of the top financial minds from around the globe discussing current economic issues, and trying to arrive at solutions. First organized in 1971, the Forum is held each January.
This isn’t the first time that the networks have ignored major economic news. When the fiscal cliff deal was reached on New Year’s Day, the $4-trillion price tag was ignored by 5 out of 6 morning and evening news programs on ABC, CBS and NBC on January 2. Only CBS “This Morning” discussed the CBO estimate while “Today,” “Good Morning America,” “Evening News,” “World News” and “Nightly News” did not.
According to at least one network, the deal was a “compromise,” but to many it just looked like the president got his way. Even CBS said Obama “won out.” The bill will increase income and capital gains taxes on individuals making more than $400,000 and families making more than $450,000, payroll taxes on everyone, and the bill did not include any cuts to spending.
