Regarding climate topics on TWC, one cannot forget Heidi Cullen's run on TWC. They had tried incorporating climate issues into their programming pretty early but it did not catch on. Climate change being one of the more talked about issues nowadays, it should come as no surprise that TWC is taking on these topics.
Many things have changed since John Coleman and Frank Batten founded TWC 40 years ago. As much as I (and I am sure many others here agree) do not like or agree with the current strategy, the mere fact that they are still alive and made it to 40 years old just shows that what they are doing now is working pretty well for them.