Hinton Communications and Amazon Defense Coalition Lies

Ok, so now I have to clean up the lies that Karen Hinton, Amazon Defense Coalition’s PR counsel, posted in the comment section of several articles slamming the Amazon Defense Coalition and their case against Chevron.

Karen Hinton made the following comments on a San Francisco Chronicle article: Chevron accuser paid $200K to Ecuador court’s economist

Alex Thorne,

You have an unfavorable opinion of me because I called attention to the fact that your wife is being paid to validate Chevron as a “green” company. Despite its multi-million dollar ad campaign, Chevron has long way to go to demonstrate that its practices and policies are environmentally sound. My client and I have a right to question Chevron and, if your wife gets caught up in that and can’t take the heat, then perhaps she should drop Chevron as a client.

And on this article from The Oil Drum: The Dubious Lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador – Part 1

What we should know about Mr. Thorne is that his wife is a paid consultant for Chevron — a fact he neglects to mention. I wrote a press release that questioned Chevron’s efforts to promote its so-called “green” efforts when, at the same time, it refused to cleanup Texaco’s oil contamination in Ecuador. I noted in the press release that Mr. Thorne’s wife presented information about Chevron’s “green” efforts to Members of Congress and congressional staff.

There are so many lies here it’s hard to know where to begin. Karen Hinton said that I neglected to mention that I‘m the husband of the person she slanders in one of her half-baked press releases. That‘s just not true. I clearly disclose that in the About Hinton Communications Watch section of my blog, and posted a link to it in my original post to The Oil Drum article. Just two clicks away was information about me that Karen Hinton claims I failed to disclose.

In another stunningly false statement, Karen Hinton calls my wife a paid consultant for Chevron. My wife’s not a paid consultant for anyone! I’d like to know how Karen Hinton can distribute a press release about my wife’s activities when she doesn’t even know what my wife does. If she can’t get the easy facts correct, why should anyone believe the information in the press releases she writes on behalf of the Amazon Defense Coalition regarding the very complicated case in Ecuador.

Karen Hinton also thinks my wife has something to do with a “multi-million dollar ad campaign” aimed at distracting Congress from the Ecuador case. Typical exaggeration and spin from Hinton Communications and the Amazon Defense Coalition. The reality is that my wife was part of a roundtable discussion, unrelated to the Ecuador case, during a lunch in front of about 30 people, hardly a massive disinformation campaign by Chevron. There was maybe one member of Congress there, but we don’t know who he or she was or if they were still there by the time my wife’s panel began.

My wife’s job has nothing to do with Ecuador, but if you read Amazon Defense Coalition’s press release, Karen Hinton makes it sound like my wife was in an all-out blitz to mislead the entire House of Representatives and Senate. This is a typical example of the over-hyped propaganda Karen Hinton produces for the Amazon Defense Coalition in an attempt to mislead the public.

So this is Karen Hinton’s game: sloppy, amateurish spinning of irrelevant facts into a press release designed to mislead the public. She blankets the internet with this press release, distributed through Business Wire, about my wife when she doesn’t know what my wife does and lies about her influence.

As for the other part of my comment on The Oil Drum regarding the 60 Minutes story on Ecuador, does anyone remember the “great” Dan Rather and “Memogate?” Ben Barnes, who is connected with Steve Donziger, was wrapped up in that bunch of lies as well and is another slimy Hinton Communications client. Whoops, my bad, it’s actually The Ben Barnes Group. Let’s keep our facts straight.

Read my original article, Chevron Gone Wild or Amazon Defense Coalition Spin? about the Amazon Defense Coalition press release that started this whole mess.

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/