Fox News cuts away from storm press conference — saying it's 'political' for mentioning climate change
After inflicting widespread misery in Louisiana, Hurricane Ida was downgraded to a "tropical storm" by meteorologists and made its way to the United States' Northeastern Corridor — where its remnants inflicted more damage in the form of heavy rains, flooding and tornadoes. Major streets in New York City and Philadelphia were badly flooded, and the NYC Subway was shut down. Rep. Gregory Meeks of Queens discussed the damage during a press conference on Thursday, and when climate change was mentioned, Fox News' Bill Hemmer accused Meeks and fellow Democrats of becoming "political."
Queens, like other NYC boroughs, suffered severe flooding — including parts of Meeks' district. At the press conference, Meeks thanked New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for "instantaneously" responding to the damage. And Hemmer, covering the press conference on Fox News, abruptly jumped in and complained that the gathering had "turned political quite quickly."
Hemmer condescendingly remarked, "It didn't take long to put the focus on quote-unquote 'climate change' here in New York."
Hemmer is being slammed on social media for reflexively resorting to climate change denial while covering the devastation in the Northeastern U.S. Here are some of the responses:
Extremely disappointing. And surprising given the anchor because @BillHemmer seems different than most of the other folks at that network. \n\nThere\u2019s nothing political about climate change. If affects all of us, and we all benefit when this problem is tackled— Joy Henningsen, MD (@Joy Henningsen, MD) 1630600208
"We can't have our viewers learning the truth! Quick, cut the feed!"— Jessica Ouellette (@Jessica Ouellette) 1630596683
Love a TV network that conveniently disdains politics, after spending 2.5 decades positioning EVERYTHING as politics.— Jared Lipof (@Jared Lipof) 1630599173
This is an amazing clip. Like, what in the actual fuck? Bill Hemmer is like a real life Simpsons character from the mid 90s.— Yasujiro (@Yasujiro) 1630599151
The rising waters are not going to care what party you belong to.— Tom Mallory (@Tom Mallory) 1630597438
Climate change like the Covid crisis are real things happening now as a matter of fact. FoxNews tries to make science, facts and history politically when they needn\u2019t be. Typical FoxNews.— M. AR Sanders (@M. AR Sanders) 1630595669
"quote/unquote #ClimateChange"\n\nTop-Left\nHurricane Harvey\nHouston, TX (2017)\n\nTop-Right\nHurricane Michael\nMexico Beach, Florida\nBefore & after (2018)\n\nBottom-Left\nNashville Tornadoes (2020)\n\nBottom-Right\n#Waverly, TN flood (2021)\n\n#ClimateChangeIsReal\n#Midterms #IPCC pic.twitter.com/HEWlOzdOzP— truthaddict (@truthaddict) 1630602293
