On Tuesday, CBS This Morning and NBC’s Today acted as unofficial White House spokesmen and eagerly promoted President Obama’s visit to Alaska in which he pushed his climate change agenda. ABC’s Good Morning America did not cover President Obama’s climate change speech during its broadcast.
CBS’s Gayle King touted how Obama “gets a firsthand look at the effects of climate change on his three-day visit to Alaska after touching down in Anchorage yesterday. He painted a dark picture of the future without action in a speech to an international summit on the arctic.”
After King played a clip of Obama warning that if America doesn’t tackle climate change “we will condemn our children to a planet beyond their capacity to repair” King noted that “[t]he president today will hike a glacier that’s disappearing as the temperatures rise.”
On NBC, news reader Natalie Morales hyped “President Obama is warning that the moment is almost upon us when it would be too late to address global warming” and included an on-screen graphic that read “Climate Change Warning; President Obama Urges World Leaders to Act.”
Morales continued to hail Obama’s climate change speech and how he urged leaders to “act boldly” on the issue:
The President kicked off the Glacier Conference in Anchorage, Alaska Monday night by challenging world leaders to act boldly on the issue of climate change. He said no nation is moving fast enough to address the problem. President Obama's three-day trip to Alaska will include viewing melting glaciers and talking to fishermen whose livelihoods are being affected by climate change.
While CBS and NBC offered up no criticism of Obama's climate change alarmism, CBS’s Gayle King did note the blowback President Obama has received for his unilateral decision to rename Alaska’s Mt. McKinley:
He [President Obama] photographed North America’s tallest mountain from Air Force One and later posted a photo on Instagram. The president's decision to restore Mt. McKinley's original name Denali is stirring a backlash among Republicans and Democrats in William McKinley’s native Ohio. The White House says it will work with them to find another way to honor the 25th president.
See relevant transcripts below.
CBS This Morning
September 1, 2015
GAYLE KING: President Obama today gets a firsthand look at the effects of climate change on his three-day visit to Alaska after touching down in Anchorage yesterday. He painted a dark picture of the future without action in a speech to an international summit on the arctic.
BARACK OBAMA: If we do nothing to keep glaciers from melting faster and oceans from rising faster and forests from burning faster and storms from growing stronger we will condemn our children to a planet beyond their capacity to repair.
KING: The president today will hike a glacier that’s disappearing as the temperatures rise. He photographed North America’s tallest mountain from Air Force One and later posted a photo on Instagram. The president's decision to restore Mt. McKinley's original name Denali is stirring a backlash among Republicans and Democrats in William McKinley’s native Ohio. The White House says it will work with them to find another way to honor the 25th president.
NBC’s Today
September 1, 2015
NATALIE MORALES: President Obama is warning that the moment is almost upon us when it would be too late to address global warming.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Climate Change Warning; President Obama Urges World Leaders to Act]
The president kicked off the Glacier Conference in Anchorage, Alaska Monday night by challenging world leaders to act boldly on the issue of climate change. He said no nation is moving fast enough to address the problem. President Obama's three-day trip to Alaska will include viewing melting glaciers and talking to fishermen whose livelihoods are being affected by climate change.
