The decision by CBS News to partner with the activist “news” website Inside Climate News (ICN) for a story on plastic recycling should raise journalistic alarm bells, especially when readers are left without any information or any acknowledgement about ICN’s funders and its mission to finance litigation and activism campaigns against American energy and industrial companies. Particularly troubling is the failure of this “partnership” to identify common funders between the authors of the story and cited sources.
In a story posted online on August 23, CBS News and ICN reported on plastic recycling in Houston, including an accompanying short-form documentary, but readers have little information on why ICN and CBS News have partnered for this piece:
“This story is a partnership between Inside Climate News and CBS News. Watch the CBS Reports documentary, ‘Advanced Recycling: Does Big Plastic’s Idea Work?’ in the video player above.”
That’s it. That’s the only context. At minimum, CBS News should have included the following important points of context for the readers’ benefit:
- ICN is funded by wealthy foundations that have spent hundreds of millions of dollars targeting the American energy industry through lawsuits and activist campaigns.
- A source in the story and ICN are funded by the same Rockefeller philanthropy.
In short, ICN is just another tool in the Rockefeller toolbox: it leverages relationships with outlets that would otherwise be considered “independent” to smuggle Rockefeller-approved narratives into mainstream discourse. The omission of these key facts and context raises serious questions about CBS News’ journalistic integrity.
Read more on EID Climate.
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