SALON
Science is fake! Right-wing media defaults to conspiracy theory to debunk climate report
There really is a conspiracy to deceive the public about climate change — but it’s not coming from the left
Donald Trump's administration used the Thanksgiving holiday to release the fourth National Climate Assessment report, a periodic government report generated by government agencies in response to federal guidelines established in 1990. Trump had no legal power to stop the report from being released but, in an obvious effort to hide its dire predictions, published it on Black Friday, hoping it would go unnoticed. The strategy may have backfired, however, as there wasn't much other headline news to compete with the report, meaning it likely got more coverage than news stories about climate change usually receive. (Sadly, I can assure you such things are ratings kryptonite.)
AMANDA MARCOTTE
Amanda Marcotte is a politics writer for Salon. Her new book,
Troll Nation: How The Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Set On Rat-F*cking Liberals, America, and Truth Itself
Is out now. She's on Twitter
