Once the favored child of the establishment, Greta Thunberg has been dropped by the global elite.
A MintPress News study finds that coverage of Thunberg in The New York Times and Washington Post has dwindled from hundreds of articles per year to barely a handful, precisely as she widens her focus from the environment to the capitalist system that is causing climate breakdown, and the Israeli attack on Gaza, which the Swedish activist has labeled a “genocide.”
Not Your Puppet
Greta Thunberg was once a media darling. Organizing a climate strike at her local school when she was just fifteen, she shot to fame and was quickly embraced by the establishment.
In 2019, she was invited to the European Union Parliament and received a standing ovation from the politicians and diplomats in attendance.
She also spoke in front of the British government. Yet even as she told them that they were a pack of “liars” responsible for “one of the greatest failures of humankind,” the young Swede was applauded in a patronizing manner.
Then Environmental Secretary Michael Gove admitted being moved by her words, stating, “When I listened to you, I felt great admiration, but also responsibility and guilt. I am of your parents’ generation, and I recognize that we haven’t done nearly enough to address climate change and the broader environmental crisis that we helped to create.”
Her message of the urgent need to address the impending climate crisis was one that was palatable to authorities, who attempted to co-opt her with access and accolades.
In 2019, despite being only 16 years old, she won the Swedish Woman of the Year award and was named by Forbes magazine as one of the world’s 100 most powerful women.
Time magazine even awarded her its prestigious Person of the Year, for, in their words, “sounding the alarm about humanity’s predatory relationship with the only home we have,” “bringing to a fragmented world a voice that transcends backgrounds and borders,” and for “showing us all what it might look like when a new generation leads.”
While conservatives were hostile to her from the start, more liberal institutions showered her with attention and praise.
The New York Times, for example, described her as “a modern-day Cassandra for the age of climate change,” and noted that her work had “inspired huge children’s demonstrations” across the planet.
Yet Thunberg refused to be turned into a mascot for the elites, and the co-optation failed.
As a result, coverage of her in elite media outlets has plummeted to almost nothing, even as she continues to fight for global causes and risks her life trying to break the illegal blockade of Gaza……
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