Where Climate Coverage Goes to Die
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Environment
/ February 19, 2026
Where Climate Coverage Goes to Die
The very notion of public service journalism is under assault at precisely the moment that it’s most needed.
Kyle Pope
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NewsGuild members are joined by other protesters during a rally outside the Washington Post office building on February 05, 2026 in Washington, DC.
(Heather Diehl / Getty Images)
This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration cofounded by Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation strengthening coverage of the climate story.
It was Jeff Bezos, the Amazon billionaire, who came up with the tagline “Democracy Dies in Darkness” for The Washington Post. According to a memoir by the paper’s former editor, Martin Baron, Bezos greenlighted the “democracy” line after an internal staff favorite was rejected by his then-wife, MacKenzie Scott.
In his book Baron admits to initially being impressed by the new owner, now the world’s third-richest man. “Everything I’ve heard and seen tells me that Bezos honestly believes in an essential role for journalism in a democracy,” Baron wrote.
That didn’t turn out so well. Baron has left the Post, Bezos has cozied up to Donald Trump (Amazon bankrolled the recent propaganda film about Melania Trump), and it’s The Washington Post that’s dying, bleeding out from a thousand paper cuts. Recent layoffs at the paper gutted, among others, its metro coverage, its international reach, its book section, and not least the climate team. One of the country’s great newspapers now lives in very dubious company, among other media outlets including CBS News and the Los Angeles Times, that were undercut by their own bosses.
In the United States, the very notion of public service journalism is under assault, at precisely the moment that it’s most needed. And climate journalism is a case in point.
Sammy Roth, who reported on climate for the Los Angeles Times and now writes his own newsletter, “Climate-Colored Goggles,” has documented Bezos’s thrashing of the Post’s climate work, which had often been first-rate. Fourteen climate journalists—including editors, reporters, and data and video journalists—were among the more than 300 Post employees to lose their jobs in the bloodletting. The challenges facing the Post’s remaining climate team have become an order of magnitude harder.
Current Issue
March 2026 Issue
The cutbacks come as the Post editorial page has become a destination for climate apologia, including an op-ed from climate skeptic Bjørn Lomborg, and a signed editorial applauding Trump’s trashing of the “endangerment finding,’ which had given the US Environmental Protection …
Ask why this angle was chosen.
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Where Climate Coverage Goes to Die
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Current Issue
Environment
/ February 19, 2026
Where Climate Coverage Goes to Die
The very notion of public service journalism is under assault at precisely the moment that it’s most needed.
Kyle Pope
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Ad Policy
NewsGuild members are joined by other protesters during a rally outside the Washington Post office building on February 05, 2026 in Washington, DC.
(Heather Diehl / Getty Images)
This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration cofounded by Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation strengthening coverage of the climate story.
It was Jeff Bezos, the Amazon billionaire, who came up with the tagline “Democracy Dies in Darkness” for The Washington Post. According to a memoir by the paper’s former editor, Martin Baron, Bezos greenlighted the “democracy” line after an internal staff favorite was rejected by his then-wife, MacKenzie Scott.
In his book Baron admits to initially being impressed by the new owner, now the world’s third-richest man. “Everything I’ve heard and seen tells me that Bezos honestly believes in an essential role for journalism in a democracy,” Baron wrote.
That didn’t turn out so well. Baron has left the Post, Bezos has cozied up to Donald Trump (Amazon bankrolled the recent propaganda film about Melania Trump), and it’s The Washington Post that’s dying, bleeding out from a thousand paper cuts. Recent layoffs at the paper gutted, among others, its metro coverage, its international reach, its book section, and not least the climate team. One of the country’s great newspapers now lives in very dubious company, among other media outlets including CBS News and the Los Angeles Times, that were undercut by their own bosses.
In the United States, the very notion of public service journalism is under assault, at precisely the moment that it’s most needed. And climate journalism is a case in point.
Sammy Roth, who reported on climate for the Los Angeles Times and now writes his own newsletter, “Climate-Colored Goggles,” has documented Bezos’s thrashing of the Post’s climate work, which had often been first-rate. Fourteen climate journalists—including editors, reporters, and data and video journalists—were among the more than 300 Post employees to lose their jobs in the bloodletting. The challenges facing the Post’s remaining climate team have become an order of magnitude harder.
Current Issue
March 2026 Issue
The cutbacks come as the Post editorial page has become a destination for climate apologia, including an op-ed from climate skeptic Bjørn Lomborg, and a signed editorial applauding Trump’s trashing of the “endangerment finding,’ which had given the US Environmental Protection …
Where Climate Coverage Goes to Die
Ask why this angle was chosen.
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Where Climate Coverage Goes to Die
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Search
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Magazine
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Politics
World
Economy
Culture
Books & the Arts
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Current Issue
Environment
/ February 19, 2026
Where Climate Coverage Goes to Die
The very notion of public service journalism is under assault at precisely the moment that it’s most needed.
Kyle Pope
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Ad Policy
NewsGuild members are joined by other protesters during a rally outside the Washington Post office building on February 05, 2026 in Washington, DC.
(Heather Diehl / Getty Images)
This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration cofounded by Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation strengthening coverage of the climate story.
It was Jeff Bezos, the Amazon billionaire, who came up with the tagline “Democracy Dies in Darkness” for The Washington Post. According to a memoir by the paper’s former editor, Martin Baron, Bezos greenlighted the “democracy” line after an internal staff favorite was rejected by his then-wife, MacKenzie Scott.
In his book Baron admits to initially being impressed by the new owner, now the world’s third-richest man. “Everything I’ve heard and seen tells me that Bezos honestly believes in an essential role for journalism in a democracy,” Baron wrote.
That didn’t turn out so well. Baron has left the Post, Bezos has cozied up to Donald Trump (Amazon bankrolled the recent propaganda film about Melania Trump), and it’s The Washington Post that’s dying, bleeding out from a thousand paper cuts. Recent layoffs at the paper gutted, among others, its metro coverage, its international reach, its book section, and not least the climate team. One of the country’s great newspapers now lives in very dubious company, among other media outlets including CBS News and the Los Angeles Times, that were undercut by their own bosses.
In the United States, the very notion of public service journalism is under assault, at precisely the moment that it’s most needed. And climate journalism is a case in point.
Sammy Roth, who reported on climate for the Los Angeles Times and now writes his own newsletter, “Climate-Colored Goggles,” has documented Bezos’s thrashing of the Post’s climate work, which had often been first-rate. Fourteen climate journalists—including editors, reporters, and data and video journalists—were among the more than 300 Post employees to lose their jobs in the bloodletting. The challenges facing the Post’s remaining climate team have become an order of magnitude harder.
Current Issue
March 2026 Issue
The cutbacks come as the Post editorial page has become a destination for climate apologia, including an op-ed from climate skeptic Bjørn Lomborg, and a signed editorial applauding Trump’s trashing of the “endangerment finding,’ which had given the US Environmental Protection …
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