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Author Topic: Fossil Fuel Propaganda Modus Operandi  (Read 39634 times)

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AGelbert

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Re: Fossil Fuel Propaganda Modus Operandi
« Reply #120 on: September 22, 2016, 01:05:39 pm »


From Congress to a Car in California, Chevron’s Covert PR and Lobbying Efforts
 
 Good news everyone! The Paris Agreement is virtually certain to come into effect this year, so the need to drastically reduce carbon pollution is no longer merely academic or theoretical -- it’s real and it’s happening. This gives an even greater impetus to the SEC investigation into ExxonMobil, as they figure out just what impact an 80 percent reduction in emissions by 2050 will have on the oil giant. And of course, what ExxonMobil is telling investors about that now, inevitability.
 
 With renewable energy now making up 30 percent of the world’s electricity generation capacity, the clean energy future is increasingly looking like a clean energy present.
 
 But don’t expect the fossil fuel industry to welcome this development with open arms. And for those living in Richmond, California, don’t even expect to see it in your local paper. This is not only because the Richmond Standard is hyper-focused on Richmond, but, more importantly, because the Richmond Standard isn’t actually a newspaper so much as an advertising arm of Chevron. (Which has a refinery in Richmond, leading to such stories as “Clouds over Chevron refinery today only steam.”)
 
That a company can and would create something that looks like a news outlet out of thin air (or smoggy, polluted air) is one of the many unfortunate side effects of the media industry struggling to survive, as evidenced by the recent widespread layoffs at the local up to the international level. As these news publications face continued difficulties, corporate interests are stepping up -- and not in the way you might hope. We’ve talked about the Koch network before, and it seems they are envious of Chevron’s ability to run a local newspaper out of one man’s car. Literally.
 
 DeSmogBlog’s Sharon Kelly wrote a great, in-depth story on the faux-newspaper and the Koch network’s admiration for it. The Richmond Standard has the look of a real news site, but in reality it lacks all the infrastructure of one. There is no difference between opinion and reporting staff, because everything is done by just one employee. There is no investigative reporting, just a man with a laptop who is always on the hunt -- not for the next scoop but for reliable WiFi. There is no journalistic integrity -- because there’s no journalist.
 
 Unfortunately, local media isn’t the only place where Chevron seems to have a sleeper cell of sorts. For those wondering why Rep. Lamar Smith’s House Science Committee is so adamant in defending fossil fuel interests, his campaign donations aren’t the only reason. It seems that a couple years ago, one of   Chevron’s top lobbyists, Stephen Sayle, took a government gig -- as the Chief of Staff for the House Science Committee.
 
 If “native advertising” is content that looks like a regular story but is actually an advertisement, then what’s a whole publication that is actually a corporate product? “Native publishing?” And when a lobbyist becomes a high-ranking bureaucrat overseeing an issue of vital importance to his former employer, “revolving door” just doesn’t quite seem to capture the full extent of the picture. Is that more like “native lobbying?”
 
Maybe the company will get into “native movies” next to explain this political maneuvering and media manipulation. If so, we suggest they call it “Citizen Chevron.”

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

 

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