Does the Sierra Club Control The New York Times?
Karl Pope, president of the National Sierra Club, was also a speaker at the energy summit. He was compelled to respond to a previous speaker who blamed the Sierra Club for negative media coverage about the energy industry. “Despite what people may think, we don’t own the New York Times, and we don’t pull their strings. We have to pitch our stories the same way you do.” Pope did not comment on domestic oil drilling, but did offer an olive branch to the energy executives saying, “In the 21st century, fuels are expensive, knowledge is abundance, and pollution is a critical problem. We need to collectively work together to design a high performance energy sector around those three principles.” In the 2007-8 wave of media attention on all things green, perhaps a lesson for companies and other stakeholder groups is to talk to each other before they launch their new PR or ad campaign. The impact will be greater. Kevin Tuerff is President of EnviroMedia Social Marketing.
