From The Guardian 6/7/24 by Dharna Noor

Beware of “advertorials” disguised as “news”.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/jun/07/united-nations-fossil-fuel-ads-news-tech-media

Headline: News and tech media mostly quiet after UN chief calls for ban on ads for oil and gas

For example, “‘Geoffrey Supran, an associate professor and scholar of fossil-fuel industry messaging at the University of Miami, said ‘there is also potentially a concern about the outlet’s editorial staff being exposed to the ads’ claims’. In a 1980s internal public relations assessment, ‘oil giant Mobil indicated that it believed its advertorials in the New York Times had shifted the outlet’s position in its favor,’ he said.

“‘The fossil-fuel industry’s advertising campaigns are state-of-the-art propaganda developed in partnership with public relations experts, executed via media outlets, and based on almost a century of collaborative experience,’ said Supran.”

According to the Nation quoted in the Guardian article, “Many outlets are not only accepting fossil-fuel advertisements, but also have arms that are producing them. Reuters, the New York Times, Bloomberg, Politico and the Washington Post all count oil majors as clients of their in-house production studios, events businesses and other branded content . . .”