How Chevron swamps a small city with campaign money and bogus news
Source: Los Angeles Times
A few weeks ago, we described how the giant oil company Chevron was barraging little Richmond, Calif. (pop. 107,000), the site of one of its major refineries, with corporate PR disguised as community "news." Its instrument was an objective-looking website, known as the Richmond Standard, purporting to be a news portal for residents of Richmond.
Now we have more to say about how Chevron (2013 revenue: $21.4 billion) is trying to influence the upcoming municipal elections in Richmond, which pit a pro-Chevron bloc of city council members against an anti-Chevron bloc.
So far this year, Chevron has poured an astounding $2.9 million into three campaign committees in Richmond. Of that, at least $1.4 million has gone to a committee supporting the pro-Chevron candidates and $500,000 to a committee opposing the candidate critical of Chevron, including the current mayor, Gayle McLaughlin. The figures suggest that Chevron is preparing to spend at least $33 for the vote of every resident of the city 18 or older.
We know this largely because of the superb reporting of Harriet Rowan of the website Richmond Confidential. Rowan, 26, is a first-year student at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, which operates Richmond Confidential to provide practical experience for its students while creating a counterweight to the pap emanating from Chevron's Richmond Standard. Richmond Confidential may be one of the most important newsgathering enterprises in the country right now.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-chevron-deluge-of-campaign-money-20141013-column.html