ABSTRACT
This chapter maps Contrarian Countermovement (CCM) organizations and contrarian voices in United States discourse, by way of analyses of US media representations over the past thirty-one years. This chapter focus on these analyses to unveil the political economy of the contrarian messages. The authors show how a patterned network of political and financial actors and elite corporate benefactors are tied to the individuals and organizations spreading climate change denial messages. In so doing, they help to better understand how contrarian CCM organizations in the U.S. demonstrate themselves to be (at times deliberately) detrimental to efforts seeking to enlarge rather than constrict the spectrum of possibility for varied forms of climate action in this high-stakes, high-profile and highly charged public arena. Movements of eleven influential and U.S.-based CCM organizations are traced through eleven prominent U.S. television and newspaper outlets, interrogating how CCM voices have worked through the media to stymy efforts seeking to enlarge rather than constrict the spectrum of possibility for mobilizing the public to appropriately address ongoing climate challenges. These analyses provide more textured understandings of how and why outlier views in climate science and governance are provided gratuitous media visibility.
