The “Monsanto Papers” revealed that the world’s most popular weedkiller has carcinogenic effects on humans and the environment. Yet the herbicide’s popularity outweighs its carcinogenicity, and its classification remains debated today. Journalism is crucial to communicating findings of adverse health and environmental impacts of popular products, yet not all journalism sources are trusted equally. Trust in the media across European countries has been a salient and growing issue. As glyphosate has been approved until 2033, understanding how glyphosate’s carcinogenicity was conveyed to audiences in news stories has implications for their risk perceptions. Construal-level theory (CLT) of psychological distance posits that the further an object is from a direct experience the more abstract it is, and vice versa, across four dimensions: time, space, social distance, and hypotheticality. Performing a quantitative content analysis of construals in German and French glyphosate-related headlines and images from digital news articles, this exploratory study found that visuals and headlines about glyphosate often had concrete attributes, but lacked indicators in the temporal, spatial, and social dimensions. The non-significant results suggest that while no association was found between construals in article headlines and images, journalists may have missed an opportunity to resonate with readers on debated, health-related topics.