Every Thanksgiving, countless Americans spend hours hovering over gas stoves—a practice which could expose adults and children to dangerous levels of nitrogen dioxide emissions.

That’s why, for the last two years, public health advocates in D.C. and Maryland have been testing the indoor air quality of hundreds of home kitchens around the region. And just in time for Thanksgiving, they released the results of their research: Nearly two-thirds of kitchens with gas stoves in D.C. and Montgomery County have unsafe level of NO2 when those stoves are running for 30 minutes.

The findings were of interest to reporters at WUSA9, a leading D.C. regional news station and website owned by the broadcast news conglomerate TEGNA. WUSA9 has 3.5 million monthly website visitors, according to the station.

On Thursday, November 21—the day of the report’s release—the station ran three stories about the gas stove report: An early morning television broadcast; a digital news summary by WUSA reporter Sophie Rosenthal; and a longer, more in-depth news package by WUSA environment reporter Scott Broom.

By Thursday evening, however, advocates with Beyond Gas D.C. noticed that the links to two of the three stories were broken. When trying to access Rosenthal’s summary and Broom’s news package, they were instead led to 404 error pages.

Concerned, the advocates reached out to the WUSA9 producers they had worked with. “I thought it was just a glitch or something,” said report co-author Barbara Briggs, who Broom interviewed in her home kitchen.

But when Briggs received no response from producers, she began to feel a creeping suspicion—one that may have proved correct. Because eventually, according to the report’s communications lead Annette McDermott, a WUSA9 producer told her that the stories had been taken down—and that they would not go back up until they received comment from local gas utility and newsroom sponsor, Washington Gas.

Broom’s story remained down for 6 days without notice to readers. It was republished on Wednesday, November 27 with an added quote from Washington Gas, and information about how gan “can play an important role in reducing health hazards in poor countries.” Rosenthal’s story remains down as of publication time.

The incident raises questions about how much fossil fuel sponsorship is influencing environmental and public health journalism—both in the D.C. region and beyond.

”I do think that news on the climate issue and what fossil fuels are doing to us is absolutely being suppressed,” Briggs said. “Maybe this is just one small case.”

Letting sponsors dictate coverage?

The practice of taking down a published story, commonly known as “unpublishing,” is considered ethically problematic across the journalism industry. Unpublishing not only undermines the public record; it raises concerns about censorship and editorial independence.

Unpublishing is therefore generally reserved only for extreme circumstances, such as brazen factual inaccuracy; unethical reporting methods; or legitimate threats to a source’s safety. And when that happens, editors are directed to be transparent with readers about the unpublishing, explaining when and why it happened, in order to preserve trust.

It is unclear exactly when and why WUSA9 unpublished its November 21 stories. Evidence of their existence is preserved via the Wayback Machine.

HEATED reached out to WUSA9’s multi-platform content assistant director Spencer Brooks and WUSA9’s general newsline to confirm whether and why the stories on Beyond Gas D.C.’s report were taken down. HEATED did not receive any response. (It should be noted that reporters don’t make decisions on whether stories get taken down; those decisions are generally made by newsroom leadership).

HEATED also reached out to Washington Gas—which is owned by the Canadian multinational AltaGas—both to confirm its involvement in the stories’ removal, and to clarify whether it believed there were factual or other problems with the report. HEATED did not receive any response.

Briggs alleges that Washington Gas didn’t immediately provide comment on the report because it has nothing credible to take issue with. “There's been no questioning of the veracity of our results or our process,” she said. “If anybody has questions, they should ask them.” Indeed, Washington Gas’s comment on Broom’s updated story does not take issue with the findings of the report.

And Mark Rodeffer, a member of Sierra Club’s D.C. chapter, noted that if WUSA9 is waiting for comment from Washington Gas to re-publish the stories, it benefited Washington Gas to wait until the last minute to comment.

“[WUSA9] essentially told Washington Gas, ‘We’ll kill the story, and let you decide when and whether we republish it,’” Rodeffer said. “It’s shocking to me that they’re letting one of their advertisers dictate stories.”

A potential ethics pledge violation

Tegna, WUSA9’s parent company, includes an ethics pledge which includes a promise of editorial independence for its journalists. ”We do not allow sponsors of news to determine, change or restrict content,” the pledge states.

So if the advocates’ allegations are correct, WUSA9’s actions would represent a violation of that pledge, and a stunning act of journalistic deference to a newsroom sponsor.

Washington Gas has sponsored many WUSA9 environmental stories, most of which are designed to bolster the utility’s environmental reputation. For example, one Washington Gas-sponsored story on WUSA9 advertises the utility’s “eco-challenge” for school kids. Another sponsored story pushes a curious product called “renewable gas.”

WUSA9’s deference to Washington Gas would also be remarkable because Washington Gas is not mentioned by name in the station’s reports. And Broom’s November 21 story already included perspective from the gas industry at large, noting that “the gas industry has pushed back against these findings.”

Washington Gas is, however, specifically mentioned in Beyond D.C.’s report as resisting the transition to electrification in the region. Indeed, the utility is currently suing D.C. over net-zero building codes passed in 2022, which require all newly constructed or substantially renovated buildings to be developed to a net-zero energy standard by 2026.

Meanwhile, Washington Gas is also being investigated by the D.C. Public Service Commission over how it responds to gas leaks in the region. Dangerous gas leaks and explosions have plagued the region over the last few years, the Washington Informer reports—which is exactly why advocates say the WUSA reports were so necessary in the first place.

”It’s not like public radio has done anything”

“This was a story of significant community involvement,” Briggs said, noting that dozens of faith congregations across D.C. and Montgomery County participated in the research by facilitating access to people’s kitchens for emission testing.

”There’s also a time consideration,” Briggs said, noting that people across D.C. will be running their gas stoves for hours because of Thanksgiving. NO2 can trigger asthma attacks and other respiratory issues, and even cause kids to develop asthma.

“The health concern is significant, and there are immediate things that can be done to reduce the emissions exposure for cooks, parents, kids, and vulnerable family members,” she said. “Even running an exhaust fan in a window, can make a really big difference.”

Still, Briggs was reluctant to even speak ill of the WUSA9 news team. Because though the station’s leadership may have taken the stories down, she noted, its reporters were still the only ones to cover the findings in the first place.

”It’s not like public radio has done anything,” she said. “It’s not like any of the other stations have carried it.”

“But it’s ridiculous, and it’s sad,” she added. “I just think this story deserves to be told.”

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Further reading

• Oil companies use paid news media partnerships to protect “social license to operate,” documents show (Desmog)

• U.N. chief calls for global fossil fuel ad ban (HEATED)

• News and tech media mostly quiet after UN chief calls for ban on ads for oil and gas (The Guardian)

• The challenge of oil companies as NPR sponsors (NPR)

• The fossil fuel industry's fake news sites (HEATED)

• Leading news outlets are doing the fossil fuel industry’s greenwashing (The Intercept)

• It’s outrageous that media organizations are still taking fossil fuel money (Current Affairs)

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