Some of the eye-rolling was chronicled in a May 1, 2014, post in the blog Mediaite. It quoted New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson calling the Obama administration "the most secretive White House I have ever dealt with." The story came out just a couple of days before the White House Correspondents' Association dinner.
It may be good PR. Baker Hughes has not only been a leader in oilfield technology, but has also been a leader in the inexact science of producing benign media coverage. The company says it will disclose the identities of all the chemicals it uses, but not the exact amounts or proportions. This move might also be a shrewd way of getting a jump on the inevitable, ahead of possible EPA mandatory disclosure requirements.
More than a dozen news media organizations filed a brief May 6, 2014, arguing that the Federal Aviation Administration is violating the First Amendment with its limits on drones. The media groups were intervening in the appeal of a judge's overturning of a $10,000 Federal Aviation Administration fine imposed on Raphael Pirker, a videographer who shot a promotional video of the University of Virginia campus.
Science discovered the "greenhouse effect" back in the 1820s. Republicans and oil companies only started denying it very recently.
"While April was an uneventful month temperature-wise in the U.S., with most areas experiencing near-average temperatures, the month was the second-warmest April on record globally, according to new NASA data."
"CALGARY, Alberta — With TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline snarled in a regulatory and legal struggle south of the border, Canadian oil companies are proposing many new and expanded pipelines that would connect the oil sands fields with new markets in China and across the world."
"Norway wants to let oil and gas companies drill in Arctic seas that were frozen as recently as the 1980s even though some climate experts say it is too early to trust global warming to keep the ice away."
"A foreign oil company convicted of polluting a Texas community's air with dangerous chemicals has gotten off easy in a criminal case that could undercut the prosecution of environmental crimes in the United States. The case revolves around Venezuelan-owned Citgo Petroleum’s decade-long violation of the federal Clean Air Act at its refinery in Corpus Christi."
"Could pesticides - their use and abuse - increase levels of cancer and birth defects? It is a question asked across the vast belt of Argentina where GM crops are grown. In Chaco, the Minister of Public Health wants an independent commission to investigate a growing health crisis."
"U.S. children working in domestic tobacco fields regularly suffer from breathing problems, nausea and other ailments, an international rights group said in a report on Wednesday, urging the industry to develop tougher protections for its youngest workers."
Links
[1] https://www.sej.org/publications/watchdog-tipsheet/news-media-roll-eyes-obama-openness-pledges
[2] https://www.sej.org/publications/watchdog-tipsheet/baker-hughes-vows-disclose-frack-chemicals-will-others
[3] https://www.sej.org/publications/watchdog-tipsheet/journos-fight-feds-keep-drones-news-tool
[4] https://www.sej.org/headlines/forgotten-history-climate-change-science
[5] http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2014/05/13/312128173/the-forgotten-history-of-climate-change-science
[6] https://www.sej.org/headlines/april-was-2nd-warmest-globally-average-us
[7] http://www.climatecentral.org/news/april-2nd-warmest-globally-average-for-u.s-17433
[8] https://www.sej.org/headlines/rocky-road-canadian-oil
[9] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/13/business/energy-environment/rocky-road-for-canadian-oil.html?ref=energy-environment
[10] https://www.sej.org/headlines/norway-bets-global-warming-arctic-oil-and-gas-drive
[11] http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/71548
[12] https://www.sej.org/headlines/oil-giant-citgo-gets-easy-criminal-case
[13] http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/05/14/14752/oil-giant-citgo-gets-easy-criminal-case
[14] https://www.sej.org/headlines/are-pesticides-linked-health-problems-argentina
[15] http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27373134
[16] https://www.sej.org/headlines/group-urges-tobacco-companies-protect-us-child-workers
[17] http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/14/us-usa-tobacco-childlabor-idUSKBN0DU07J20140514
[18] https://www.sej.org/search_results
[19] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=3375
[20] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=3372
[21] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=3373
[22] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=3374
[23] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=3377
[24] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=3378
[25] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=3379
[26] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=3380
[27] https://www.sej.org/search_results?page=4971