Chevron Gone Wild or Amazon Defense Coalition Spin?

Hinton Communications distributed the following press release not to try to influence the media or Congress, but to mislead members of the public who are following the activities of the Amazon Defense Coalition.  Please click here to read the full press release.

It is obvious to me that anyone having a basic level of knowledge of how the media operates would immediately determine that the release is not a serious attempt to influence media coverage.  Any credible journalist would read the release and come to the same conclusions that I have in this article.

The title of the press release reads as follows: Chevron Trying to “Greenwash” Polluter Image In Washington Conference On Clean Technology

First, notice how the event has nothing to do with the case in Ecuador involving Chevron.  None of the speakers at the event or any of the questions asked after the speakers gave their presentations involved Ecuador.  Ironically, Chevron’s representative spoke on the development of next generation biofuels, land-use, and water, something you think folks who are “truly” interested in the wellbeing of the Amazon would applaud.  In fact, it wasn’t even a conference, it was a roundtable discussion held over lunch with only 30 participants interested in development.

The second part of the title: Oil Company Scrambling after Media Coverage Exposes Environmental Damage Left Behind in Ecuador

Let’s think for a minute about what an oil company like Chevron would do if they were really “scrambling.”  With Chevron’s deep pockets, I would imagine million dollar advertising campaigns, armies of lobbyists descending on Washington, and spokespeople hitting the airwaves.  So what is Karen Hinton’s definition of an oil company “scrambling?” The answer: one adviser participating in a roundtable discussion.

According to the press releases’ first paragraph, Chevron is attempting to “deflect” attention away from media coverage (and by extension the public’s attention) of Ecuador by participating in a roundtable discussion.  Excuse me?!  What percentage of the general public even heard of this event?  Here is a perfect example of an exaggeration that defies logic.

The second paragraph is basically irrelevant to the issues addressed at the lunch, and it was Chevron’s participation in the event that was the whole point of the release according to Karen Hinton in an email response to me.  Actually, it’s hard to determine what the point of the release is.  But let me get this straight, you waste your client’s billable hours on writing press releases about someone involved in a roundtable discussion.  Okay, must be nice that they are so gullible.

The third paragraph really makes me laugh.  It starts out: "Chevron’s participation in the event is little more than an attempt to distract Congress…”

I apologize for continually making this point but here it is again: one Chevron advisor participating in a roundtable discussion is going to “distract” the entire Senate and House of Representatives.  Kirsten Thorne must be one of the top ten most influential people in Washington.  That’s a little sarcasm on my part folks.

The forth paragraph is just a restatement of the third except with the added line about deceiving the public thrown in.  I’ll say it again, what percentage of the general public knew about this event.  I’ll make a conservative estimate and say zero.

At this point since there is no more “news” to include in this press release, Hinton Communications just pads the rest with boilerplate Amazon Defense Coalition rhetoric.  There are many inaccuracies contained in that language, but that is a subject for another post.

It is safe to say that the average person reading this press release would come to the conclusion that Chevron is on a massive disinformation campaign.  However, after digging a littler further into the story we find out that there is no concerted effort by Chevron to mislead or divert attention away from the Ecuador issue.  What we actually have is a press release designed to give the public a false impression of Chevron’s activities.

To find out more about the Amazon Defense Coalition and the Chevron/Ecuador case please visit: http://amazondefensecoalition.wordpress.com/

For more information about Hinton Communications please visit: http://hintoncommunicationswatchact.wordpress.com/