ABSTRACT
Journalists are almost invariably disturbed by any allegation that they are political. By and large, members of the mainstream news media see themselves as disinterested purveyors of information, and their professional code regards bias as heresy.1 But in a complex way, the mainstream media have been, and continue to be, political. In no other area is this truer than in regard to the environment. They do not have an agenda to advance nor a particular set of environmental principles to promote. Yet by virtue of their intimate involvement in the debates among those who do, they play a significant, sometimes pivotal, role in forging public policies.
