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.
This phenomenon can be seen by studying the coverage of Thunberg in The New York Times and The Washington Post. Shooting to public attention in 2018, Thunberg and her activities were, at first, given copious coverage in both newspapers, amounting to hundreds of articles per year in each outlet. Yet this has dwindled to virtually nothing by 2025, with only three Times and two Post articles even mentioning Thunberg, and only one in each covering her in any detail beyond a passing reference.
The data was compiled by searching for the term “Greta Thunberg” in the New York Times archive and Dow Jones Factiva news database, a tool that records the content from more than 32,000 U.S. and international media outlets.
Dr. Jill Stein, a three-time presidential candidate for the United States Green Party, was not surprised by the findings. “It comes with the territory when you go from inside the box to outside the box, and it is a real sign of integrity when the media stops covering you,” she told MintPress; “Greta has been canceled, like many of the best activists I know of.”
The precipitous drop in corporate media interest closely correlates with Thunberg’s increasingly radical stances. In 2022, she identified capitalism as a prime cause of climate collapse and explained the need for a comprehensive global revolution, stating that:
What we refer to as ‘normal’ is an extreme system built on the exploitation of people and the planet. It is a system defined by colonialism, imperialism, oppression, and genocide by the so-called global North to accumulate wealth that still shapes our current world order.”
At the same public event, she dismissed the United Nations Climate Change Conferences as a waste of time, and merely an opportunity for “people in power… to [use] greenwashing, lying and cheating.”
She has also gone out of her way to support workers’ struggles against their bosses. Last year, she visited the GKN auto parts factory in Florence, Italy, a site that striking workers have occupied. “Climate justice = workers’ rights,” she explained, noting that,
[E]very necessity to choose between the struggle for labour and the struggle for climate justice is abolished. The territory defends the factory, the factory defends the territory. The fight to get to the end of the month is the same fight against the end of the world.”
She has spoken out against the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara, in support of striking Indian farmers, and against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Undoubtedly, however, it is her solidarity with the Palestinian people and their cause that has earned her the most flak. In 2021, she shared a social media post accusing Israel of carrying out war crimes, adding that it was “Devastating to follow the developments in Jerusalem and Gaza,” adding the hashtag #SaveSheikhJarrah to her post. In the wake of the October 7 attack and the Israeli bombardment that followed it, she called for an immediate ceasefire and for freedom and justice for Palestine. And last year, she was arrested while protesting Israel’s inclusion in the Eurovision Song Contest.
For these actions, she has been vocally condemned by many of the same outlets that, only a few years previously, had celebrated and promoted her. Just days after her calls for a ceasefire, Forbes magazine ran a story headlined “Greta Thunberg’s stand with Gaza is a problem for the climate change movement,” which claimed that sharing “controversial opinions that only serve to alienate entire demographics” does not “advance an environmental cause,” and “only weakens her ability to advocate and harms the overall climate change movement.” Another Forbes article described her career arc as a “tragedy” and claimed that she was driven by an all-encompassing “hatred of Israel” and a determination to “destroy the Jewish state.” Meanwhile, influential German publication Der Spiegel, which had awarded her its “Person of the Year” in 2019, branded her an “antisemite.”
For Stein, Thunberg’s media excommunication cannot simply be explained by the notion that the exploits of a 22-year-old organizer are less newsworthy than those of a precocious teenager. Rather, it was her public stances against capitalism, imperialism, and Israel’s actions in Gaza that angered them.
“Each of those [stances] were a step-down in the eyes of mainstream media and the oligarchy they defend,” she said. “You could see the pushback against her starting when she began to speak about climate, social and economic justice. But when she began to take a stand on Gaza, that was the last straw, and you didn’t see her getting mainstream media coverage after that,” she added.
Thunberg sees the fight for a greener world as inseparable from the struggle for political and economic freedom. “For me, there is no way of distinguishing the two,” she said, adding:
We cannot have climate justice without social justice. The reason why I am a climate activist is not because I want to protect trees. I’m a climate activist because I care about human and planetary well-being, and those are extremely interlinked.”
Dimitri Lascaris, a lawyer and former Green Party of Canada leadership candidate who has sailed on multiple “freedom flotillas” attempting to break the Gaza blockade, said that the shunning of Thunberg also represents “an indictment of the environmental movement.” As Lascaris told MintPress:
Before Greta took an incredibly courageous stand for the victims of Israel’s genocidal regime, she was the darling of the movement, but many of those same ‘environmentalists’ who lionized her have fallen silent as she risks her life to draw attention to the suffering of Palestinians. Environmental justice and human rights are inextricably linked. If you will not stand with Greta now, then you have no right to call yourself an ‘environmental activist.’”
Dangerous Waters
In addition to her political trajectory, Thunberg is currently on a physical journey, sailing on an aid ship to Gaza in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade. She is one of 12 public figures to board the Madleen at the Sicilian port of Catania, which is scheduled to reach the densely populated strip on June 7. Others include “Game of Thrones” actor Liam Cunningham and French politician Rima Hassan.
The ship is carrying urgently-needed supplies, including flour, rice, and other staples, as well as baby formula, feminine hygiene products, medical supplies, crutches, prosthetic limbs, and water desalination kits. The Madleen is a small vessel, and the aid is but a drop in the ocean of what authorities say is needed. Organizers, however, emphasize the symbolic importance of breaking the blockade from the outside. “We are doing this because no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying, because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity,” Thunberg explained. The volunteers and crew are sailing unarmed and have been trained in non-violence.
Corporate media have largely ignored the Madleen’s voyage. The New York Times, for example, has not covered it at all, while the Washington Post has dedicated a single article to it. Other outlets, however, have bitterly denounced the operation. “Greta Thunberg’s narcissism has escalated to terrifying levels,” ran the headline in Britain’s daily, The Telegraph, which labeled it a “self-serving stunt masquerading as a daring act of charity.”
Some commentators have displayed even more hostility to the mission. U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, for instance, stated that the hopes “Greta and her friends can swim,” openly suggesting the aid ship should be attacked.
Israel has stated it will block the Madleen from entering Gazan waters, and its drones are already circling the ship. In May, the Israeli military attacked another boat attempting to deliver lifesaving aid to Palestine, firing missiles at the vessel just outside Maltese waters. The incident was largely ignored in the Western press.
Stein was impressed by Thunberg’s bravery, telling MintPress:
It is heroic, it is inspirational, and it is galvanizing to have this example of her and the others on the Freedom Flotilla. Their incredibly courageous, compassionate humanitarian example is the polar opposite of this horrific genocide. They are risking their lives and they know it… But they refuse to accept a genocide, or to be powerless in the face of it.”
The lack of press attention likely does not surprise Thunberg, who identified Western corporate media as active participants in the slaughter. “Our governments, our institutions, our companies are supporting this genocide… It is our tax money. It is our media who are continuing to dehumanize Palestinians,” she said. “On behalf of the international community, the so-called Western world, I am so sorry that we have betrayed you by not supporting you enough,” she added.
The manner in which the ruling class has collectively dumped Thunberg is far from an isolated incident. Elite liberal forces have historically attempted to defang and dilute radical challenges to the status quo, such as Black Lives Matter, the LGBT liberation movement, and the Occupy Wall Street protests, offering their leaders access and privileges. If this strategy fails, figures and movements are shunned, rebuked, or attacked. While Martin Luther King focused his attention on racist Southern sheriffs, he was treated with respect. But after his anti-war “Beyond Vietnam” speech, where he trained his guns on the “triple evils of racism, extreme materialism and militarism,” he became public enemy number one, and was ignored, denounced, and, ultimately, assassinated.
Thunberg shows no sign of backing down. “We are standing up for justice, sustainability, liberation for everyone. There can be no climate justice without social justice,” she said. That is precisely the kind of talk that got her ejected from elite polite society in the first place.
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Feature photo | Activist Greta Thunberg stands near the stage during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Mannheim, Germany, on Dec. 6, 2024. Uwe Anspach | AP
Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. He completed his PhD in 2017 and has since authored two acclaimed books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams. Follow Alan on Twitter for more of his work and commentary: @AlanRMacLeod.
