“Let us not be hypocritical about this,” his cameraperson, Kripal Singh, interjected. “It is same with the American or any other media.”
Indeed, Chinyere Fred-Adegbulugbe, a senior correspondent for The Punch, a Nigerian daily newspaper, said that her pieces about a Copenhagen played up the Africa angle and its acute vulnerability in the climate crisis. “I think Africa is right and I have that in the back of my mind when I write, but that does not make me fake facts,” she said.
Still, there were others who claimed that they covered the event with a sense of detachment.
“Do I care about the outcome here? No,” said the Times’s Broder. “I can’t say that the fate of the world is being decided right now here at Copenhagen, but skepticism about this meeting doesn’t make me a skeptic about the science.”
Stacy Feldman, a reporter based in Tel Aviv who insists on “not feeling, just investigating,” admits that being totally “objective” is hard. “I try and do objective reporting from the perspective that a global deal is good for the world,” she said.
Like Broder, Feldman, was not rooting for one result or another. “I won’t be sad if no deal is reached. I’m simply not emotionally invested in it,” she said.
But Fred-Adegbulugbe said she couldn’t relate to such detachment. “I’m told to be neutral since it’s not my business, but it is my business because I’m involved in it,” she said.
Following the Copenhagen Accord, critics have lampooned the summit as a United Nations circus with zero results, but there are some veteran climate journalists who saw subtle but meaningful differences.
“There are no climate skeptics here,” said Wootliff, who has covered every major U.N. climate meeting since the 1990s, calling this one a “good COP.” “There has been a fundamental shift. This is the first time I’ve heard people talking about the future of their children and their grandchildren.”
What will come of all the pomp and circumstance remains to be seen, of course, but some journalists were impressed by the sense of having witnessed a historic moment.
“Sometimes I feel overwhelmed and I think, was it worth spending so much money and time?” said Fred-Adegbulugbe. “But I’ve learned new things and met new people. Most of all, I want to be able to say I was there.”
pretty much everyone felt cheated……so much hoopla to bring about ‘subtle change’….just another ‘foreign trip’ to some and 70 sleepless hours to many who were making sure that every single development gets reported….must have been a real challenge to remain detached while tolerating such shoddiness!
#1 Posted by shweta chaubey, CJR on Thu 24 Dec 2009 at 03:52 PM
It is obvious from "Good COP, Bad COP", that the UN multilateral system cannot hold if this kind of confusion prevails with "political deadlock and convoluted information". Such a process, as witnessed at Copenhagen, can be viewed as wasteful. An important question is whether the next COP at Mexico will ensure a process with transparency and honesty that does not dissipate like the one at Copenhagen. But, thank you for the piece anyway, which was quite informative. Sameer.
#2 Posted by Sameer, CJR on Sat 26 Dec 2009 at 08:18 AM
Betwa's record has captured the Copenhagen atmospherics well. Not much was expected from the conference. The tide ebbed rapidly in the beginning of the conference, and then it was difficult to retrieve the situation. The hosts did not help much. The Obama deal with the larger developing economies, which came at the cost of European sentiment, was shrouded in secrecy. Many countries felt bypassed and ignored by the goings-on and found it difficult to accept the compromise.
Brooket
#3 Posted by S. Brooket, CJR on Sat 26 Dec 2009 at 08:33 AM
“I try and do objective reporting from the perspective that a global deal is good for the world”
This passes for journalism these days? What a joke. No wonder print media is dying and the shrill are taking up the slack. It's one thing to acknowledge and be cognizant of one's inherent observational and acquired biases but this is way too much. Personally I think a global deal is terrible for the world, akin to surrendering another inch of sovereignty to the fools who crashed miserably at Copenhagen. Here's to further disappointment to the 'objective reporters'
#4 Posted by Sean, CJR on Sun 27 Dec 2009 at 03:29 AM