At Exxon Ark. Oil Spill Fine at Hearing, Public Not Allowed to Listen
"'What gets everybody really suspicious is that you don't have access to watch it, which raises all kinds of issues about transparency.'"
Source: InsideClimate News, 06/17/2014
Journalism & Media
"Who Gets A Press Pass?" Report Explores Media Access
Experienced journalists know that a press credential is often critical to gaining physical or virtual access to news events and information. It's an aspect of information access rarely covered by the news media themselves. A new report from the Digital Media Law Project at Harvard looks systematically at who gets a press card and who does not.
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When Is a Policy Not a Policy? When Reporters Want To Talk to EPA Staff
For some years now, under multiple administrations, journalists who have called EPA scientists and other experts asking to talk to them about matters large and small have almost universally been told something like, "I'm not allowed to talk to news media without Press Office permission." Yet EPA officials maintain they do not have a press policy. SEJ's WatchDog filed June 10, 2014 the first of what will be an ongoing series of FOIA requests to get to the bottom of this ironic situation.
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SEJ Objects to EPA "No Attribution" Presser on Carbon Rule
SEJ objected strenuously last week to the ground rules for a telephone press briefing on U.S. EPA's carbon emissions rule for existing power plants. In a June 5, 2014, letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, the Society of Environmental Journalists objected to the "truncated, anonymous 'background' tele-briefing for news media" held on the June 2 roll-out day. The text of EPA's June 10 response to SEJ's letter is here.
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"U.S. Judge Orders ExxonMobil Produce Documents on Arkansas Spill"
"A U.S. federal judge has denied ExxonMobil Corp's bid to dismiss a government lawsuit and instead ordered the oil giant to hand over documents going back decades on a pipeline that ruptured last year and inundated an Arkansas town with oil."
Source: Reuters, 06/11/2014
SEJ Objects to EPA "No Attribution" Presser
The Society of Environmental Journalists has objected to the Environmental Protection Agency's "no attribution" ground rule for a press teleconference that was part of its June 2, 2014, roll-out of its carbon emissions rule for existing power plants. The background briefing — which supplemented Administrator Gina McCarthy's on-record statement — made questions difficult on this complex rule. The text of SEJ's June 6 letter to McCarthy is here. The text of EPA's June 10 response to SEJ's letter is here.
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The War On Coal Miners: How Companies Hide The Threat Of Black Lung
"Whistleblower Justin Greenwell told regulators that his company, Armstrong Coal, was misreporting the dust levels in his mine, potentially putting miners in danger of black lung disease."
Source: Huffington Post, 05/30/2014
"Photographer Captures Tar Sands 'Destruction' From Above"
"Photographer and pilot Alex MacLean wanted to learn more about the Keystone XL pipeline, which if approved will carry oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, so he decided to take pictures from above of the tar sands that will supply oil to the project. What he found shocked him."
Source: Huffington Post, 05/30/2014
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