In advance of the Copenhagen Climate Conference, which kicked off today in Denmark, 56 papers across the globe yesterday published a front-page editorial led by the Guardian calling for international action on the global warming front. The only American paper to sign on: our own Miami Herald.
"This initiative offered the Miami Herald's editorial board a terrific opportunity to join other papers across the globe on an issue that is of paramount importance to Florida and to our nation," editorial page editor Myriam Marquez told the Guardian.
Today, media critic Michael Wolff, in wording that's a slight dis to the Herald, asks "why no major U.S. newspapers would play." His answer: "They have no fight left in them."
Also to blame is the fact that climate change is caught up in America's divisive, ongoing battle between the left and right. It isn't always so in other countries. For example, German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited D.C. last month to plead with America to sign on to a climate change compact. She represents a center-right party that internationally is aligned with the Republican Party.
Perhaps the politics at play is why the Herald decided to omit a single sentence critical of American policy: "Even now the world finds itself at the mercy of American domestic politics, for the president cannot fully commit to the action required until the U.S. Congress has done so."
The Guardian has contacted Marquez for an explanation, but she hasn't yet responded.
Even with the slightly modified version, the Herald is already catching flak from the usual right-wing suspects.