Online right squeezed climate skepticism into Afghanistan withdrawal furor
Right-wing outlets used the briefly intersecting issues to criticize media and climate action
Earlier this week, we reported that there was a general dearth of high-profile climate stories last week, likely due to the escalating withdrawal from Afghanistan drawing everyone’s (and especially the media’s) eyeballs to the Middle East. However, a Taliban official gave American right-wingers an opportunity to tie the two together after suggesting that the group, seeking recognition from the international community, wants to contribute to the fight against climate change. After an initial report from Newsweek, outlets like Breitbart tried pushing a bizarre mini-controversy that attempted to connect audiences’ distrust of the Taliban to their distrust of climate science.
Once the story broke, right-wing media in the U.S. seized on the opportunity to drive outrage clicks to their sites. Breitbart, the Washington Examiner, Watts Up with That, Newsbusters, RedState, the Washington Free Beacon, and other similarly provocative outlets all posted stories about the Taliban’s move within a couple days of its announcement. According to data from NewsWhip, all of these stories garnered a total of 51,920 interactions on Facebook, with Breitbart’s story getting the most engagement at 15,129 interactions.
Naturally, it appears that Breitbart et al’s audiences - not to mention their writers - are extremely skeptical about the Taliban’s new position, and it looks like some are connecting that skepticism to the disbelief they already feel about climate change and the Biden administration.
This incredulity that the right-wing media is fostering in the wake of this story doesn’t end there, however; they’re also using this angle to criticize traditional media. Newsweek, which broke the story in the first place, was lambasted by right-wing media for that very act, accusing the relatively mainstream outlet of “celebrating” the Taliban’s move.
On top of going after Newsweek for merely reporting on the Taliban’s position, these same right-wing outlets also attacked CBS News - and CBS climate reporter Cara Korte in particular - for covering the Taliban’s attempts to capitalize on climate change’s destabilizing effects.
Right-wing media outlets frequently use these bad faith arguments against the pervasiveness of climate change to perpetuate climate skepticism in their audiences, especially when the subject of their fake controversy is a woman. Recall how right-wing media flipped a lid when Energy Sec. Jennifer Granholm was merely asked about climate change’s possible role in the collapse of a Surfside, Fla., condo, or how they mocked Vice President Harris for asserting climate change’s role in driving Central Americans out of their homes and up north to America.