Thread by @DoctorVive

I am thrilled to announce that in partnership with @EvergreenAction @ClimatePower @350 @ClimateHawkVote @stopfundingheat @YEARSofLIVING & @fossilfreemedia, @EndClimtSilence is today launching a CAMPAIGN to tell @nytimes 💥STOP PROMOTING FOSSIL FUELS💥

✨THREAD✨

https://twitter.com/adsnotfit2print/status/1430870432748539906

Since founding @EndClimtSilence in 2018, I have come to realize that the biggest problem facing climate journalism is the influence of fossil-fuel money on the executives running news outlets.

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This influence emerges in many ways.

Broadcast network execs are, I believe, insinuating to their production and reporting teams that it's "political" or "biased" to cover the #ClimateCrisis precisely becuz they don't want to alienate their oil and gas advertisers.

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For newspapers like the @nytimes and the @washingtonpost, who have some of the best climate reporters in the world, the influence works differently.

These newspapers are trading the credibility of their journalism to oil and gas companies for money.

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As @RBrulle @GeoffreySupran @NaomiOreskes show in their research, fossil fuel executives' current disinformation strategy is to hire news outlets to advertise their companies as positive, responsible, and legitimate partners in the project of halting global heating.

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See Brulle's paper here, eg.

wp.comminfo.rutgers.edu/maronczyk/wp-c…

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This strategy will work only if the news outlet's climate reporting itself seems credible.

Which, in this case, of course it does.

@nytclimate is one of the best climate desks in the world.

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So, when the @nytimes @TBrandStudio writes a paid post that, for instance, glowingly praises Exxon's research into algae & other biofuels, it seems not like disinformation, but like credible reporting.

nytimes.com/paidpost/exxon…

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Never mind that (as the @IEA reports) fossil fuel companies’ 2020 clean-energy investments accounted for only about 1% of their total capital expenditure, less than they spent on advertising itself.

iea.org/reports/world-…

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And never mind that upstream oil and gas investment actually rose 6% in 2019 and is expected to rise by about 10% in 2021.

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I mean, come on people—look at the facts!

Fossil fuel companies are not looking to replace fossil fuels. They are finding ways to extract more of them.

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#ClimateTwitter knows this, of course. But do @nytimes readers?

In one study that *told* its participants they were viewing ads, 9 out of 10 people identified ads as news articles.

phys.org/news/2019-02-p…

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.@nytimes @TBrandStudio fossil fuel ads are quite literally forms of disinformation.

Even worse, they are trying to get NYT readers to buy more fossil fuels, even though the climate crisis is already killing us.

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But oil and gas advertising is ubiquitous throughout the news media. Why focus on the @nytimes?

Well, they have a history of banning ads for products harmful to their readers.

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For example, the @nytimes banned tobacco ads in 1999.

Of course they weren't exactly ahead of the curve. By 1999 the harms of smoking had been recognized by scientists for over 3 decades.

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And in 1998 tobacco companies had just agreed to cease their most deceptive marketing practices in a settlement with 46 State AGs.

So the @nytimes was just bringing up the rear, really.

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But they are significantly belated in this case too.

It’s been 33 years since @DrJamesEHansen testified to Congress that burning of fossil fuels causees global heating.

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And today oil and gas companies are facing not only liability cases, but also multiple fraud cases like 👇 that allege they are using news-media advertising to mislead consumers about the impacts of their products.

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Many of the exhibits in these fraud cases are Paid Poses written by @TBrandStudio @nytimes.

👀

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So what can you do?

Sign our petition in the link below!

adsnotfittoprint.com

RT this thread, please!

Please follow @adsnotfit2print and RT *their* posts!

TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND GET THEM TO SIGN AND SHARE! Do it on Facebook too!

(So. Many. Exclamation. Points!)

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.@EndClimtSilence will *never* fundraise off these signatures.

We are circulating this petition ONLY to gather our collective voices together to tell the NYT publisher, A G Sulzberger, that he needs to stop making the #ClimateCrisis worse.

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We are out of time. The whole world must act now.

The @nytimes must do its part to accept the reality of the climate crisis and participate in the transition to a net-zero economy.

It must ban the #adsnotfit2print today!

#EndClimateSilence

/fin