Asked what he makes of the wild success of “Don’t Look Up,” Colorado-based journalist David Sirota, who was a co-creator of the Netflix film, told Krystal Ball, co-host of the YouTube Show Breaking Points, that the movie reveals a “pent-up demand” for all types of media addressing climate change, arguing that instead of being treated as a “special topic area,” climate and science should get “day-to-day” coverage.
“This movie speaks to a lot of different things that people can relate to,” Sirota, who was a strategist for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’s last presidential campaign, told Ball. “I think a lot of folks across the political spectrum feel like the media doesn’t take serious issues seriously. I feel like a lot of people across the political spectrum feel like the government doesn’t take serious issues seriously, and ultimately this movie is really about that.
“I mean, there is a climate metaphor at play here, which is that we know climate change is happening. The government and the media don’t take it seriously, but underneath that narrative is really whether we, as a society, are willing to stipulate basic facts and use those facts to constructively make policy and do things to address crises. And I think that that’s a kind of a universal message. The only people that that message really, I think, probably bothers are people who are creating the problems.”
Listen to more from Sirota here:
