I’ve been thinking more about the SEJ event I wrote about here. It’s been bugging me. To be honest, while I was quite impressed with the presidential advisers, the environmental journalists were … disappointing.
Right now there is so much interesting stuff happening around climate and energy — policy details being hashed out, legislation being debated, important new aspects of the discussion getting attention, state efforts blossoming, international action moving ahead, etc. There is an embarrassment of riches in this area, right there in the thick of current events.
So what do environmental journalists ask the presidential advisers?
- Will you ask voters to sacrifice personally?
- Wetlands
- Nuclear power
- Population
- "Walking the walk" in the candidates’ personal lives and campaigns
Can you imagine a more banal set of questions? Do these really get to the issues the candidates are wrestling with right now? Do they illuminate how the candidates differ from one another? Do they reflect a group of people in touch with contemporary politics and culture?
I don’t think environmental journalists, as an actually existing group of people within the journalism community, are keeping up with the times.
And I guess I’ll stop there before I get myself in too much trouble.
