The climate crisis has become an increasingly popular mention in news across social platforms such as Twitter as people are looking for answers and solutions. Cable news, however, is covering a different side of the story. Congressional negotiations are underway to slow the impact of climate change. Senator Joe Machin (D-WV) is one of the main people who is standing in the way of passing negotiations and reconciliations. The American public lead to question whether or not Manchin’s main goal is to sabotage clean energy.

The clean energy bill that is being proposed is illustrated by experts as “the backbone of the energy transition”. It allows companies who switch to cleaner sources of energy to be rewarded, and holds those back who do not by fining them. According to Vox, the program would be the most effective way to slash carbon emissions significantly enough to show drastic change. Who would be opposed to such a program?

As per Media Matters, Mr. Manchin made $491,949 in dividends from his Enersystems stock, according to his Senate financial disclosure report. Manchin has also historically received grand donations to his campaign sourced from Fossil Fuel companies. In the grand scheme of three weeks of news reporting, there were only five mentions of Machin’s associations to the industry among major cable news distributors. This contributes to the larger problem of misinformation at hand.

The role that news plays in our society is significant in that people look to it for updates, statistics, and most importantly, truth. A vast majority of Americans turn to prime-time television for information on what is happening in the world. Cable news’ failure to illustrate the role that Fossil Fuel companies play in slowing down progress against climate change is severely detrimental to our society. Where are people to look when they are interested in finding out how to combat climate change when they are not aware of the source of it all? How are we to hold our news networks responsible for this?