Outed! Will Obama Meet the Real FACES of Coal or Exposed Big Coal Front?
Question of the week: As Capitol Hill and the various Obama administration agencies hold meetings with coalfield residents and coal industry representatives, as part of their fact-finding process of making major decisions on mountaintop removal, coal and climate change policies, will they meet the "real" faces of coal or Big Coal mannequins?
From forged letters to fake rallies, the revelations over Big Coal's public relations machinations continue. Today's candidate for the "bogus coal front of the week" is FACES, the Federation for American Coal, Energy and Security.
Thanks to the indefatigable Appalachian Voices research team, the specious FACES front has been outed, again. So out of touch with coalfield residents and realities, the public relations firm behind the FACES pro-coal front group has even resorted to buying stock photos to use as portraits of its "supporters" and alliance "members."
Check out the "About Us" section of coalfield FACES supporters:
https://www.facesofcoal.org/?page_id=18
And then check out this great stock footage:
For more hilarious stock photos and their grafting onto the FACES website, see the Appalachian Voices blog:
https://www.appvoices.org/index.php/frontporch/blogposts/farces_of_coals_fake_supporters/
Launched last week as "an alliance of individuals from all walks of life who have joined forces to educate lawmakers and the general public about the importance of coal and coal mining to our local and national economies," a series of investigative blogs have shown that this so-called grassroots effort is simply another public relations project coordinated by an inside the Beltway firm.
DeSmog Blog author James Hoggan outed FACES yesterday, finding that: "The latest "grassroots" organization to join the public conversation on behalf of the coal industry, appears to be a project of the K-Street public relations firm, the Adfero Group, one of industry's most accommodating voices in Washington, D.C. The FACES website, which includes no contact information, is registered to Adfero.
Hoggan's post is here: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-hoggan/new-grassroots-pro-coal-g_b_268542.html
And fellow DeSmog blogger Kevin Grandia has been a blue tick hound on the trail of bogus Big Coal campaigns for ages: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-grandia
Who are the "real" faces of coal and the coalfields?
Try a Wyoming rancher, a Navajo elder, a Southern community organizer, a Latino immigrant organizer from Chicago, a young indigenous Ottawa woman from Michigan, and an Appalachian coal miner's widow--these informed coalfield residents from across the United States traveled to Washington, DC this spring to educate Obama administrators and the US Congress on the impact of coal in their communities. Read their personal stories here: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/mr-king-coals-neighborhoo_b_193280.html
Here are a few other real faces in the coalfields:
Kathy Selvage, in Wise County, Virginia:
Judy Bonds and Coal River Valley residents in West Virginia (in the Coal Country film):
Retired coal miner Ed Wiley and Maria Lambert in the West Virginia coalfields:
Or, the 1,000 coal miners that still die annually from black lung disease:
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Question of the week: As Capitol Hill and the various Obama administration agencies hold meetings with coalfield residents and coal industry representatives, as part of their fact-finding process of making major decisions on mountaintop removal, coal and climate change policies, will they meet the "real" faces of coal or Big Coal mannequins?
From forged letters to fake rallies, the revelations over Big Coal's public relations machinations continue. Today's candidate for the "bogus coal front of the week" is FACES, the Federation for American Coal, Energy and Security.
Thanks to the indefatigable Appalachian Voices research team, the specious FACES front has been outed, again. So out of touch with coalfield residents and realities, the public relations firm behind the FACES pro-coal front group has even resorted to buying stock photos to use as portraits of its "supporters" and alliance "members."
Check out the "About Us" section of coalfield FACES supporters:
https://www.facesofcoal.org/?page_id=18
And then check out this great stock footage:
For more hilarious stock photos and their grafting onto the FACES website, see the Appalachian Voices blog:
https://www.appvoices.org/index.php/frontporch/blogposts/farces_of_coals_fake_supporters/
Launched last week as "an alliance of individuals from all walks of life who have joined forces to educate lawmakers and the general public about the importance of coal and coal mining to our local and national economies," a series of investigative blogs have shown that this so-called grassroots effort is simply another public relations project coordinated by an inside the Beltway firm.
DeSmog Blog author James Hoggan outed FACES yesterday, finding that: "The latest "grassroots" organization to join the public conversation on behalf of the coal industry, appears to be a project of the K-Street public relations firm, the Adfero Group, one of industry's most accommodating voices in Washington, D.C. The FACES website, which includes no contact information, is registered to Adfero.
Hoggan's post is here: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-hoggan/new-grassroots-pro-coal-g_b_268542.html
And fellow DeSmog blogger Kevin Grandia has been a blue tick hound on the trail of bogus Big Coal campaigns for ages: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-grandia
Who are the "real" faces of coal and the coalfields?
Try a Wyoming rancher, a Navajo elder, a Southern community organizer, a Latino immigrant organizer from Chicago, a young indigenous Ottawa woman from Michigan, and an Appalachian coal miner's widow--these informed coalfield residents from across the United States traveled to Washington, DC this spring to educate Obama administrators and the US Congress on the impact of coal in their communities. Read their personal stories here: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/mr-king-coals-neighborhoo_b_193280.html
Here are a few other real faces in the coalfields:
Kathy Selvage, in Wise County, Virginia:
Judy Bonds and Coal River Valley residents in West Virginia (in the Coal Country film):
Retired coal miner Ed Wiley and Maria Lambert in the West Virginia coalfields:
Or, the 1,000 coal miners that still die annually from black lung disease:
Question of the week: As Capitol Hill and the various Obama administration agencies hold meetings with coalfield residents and coal industry representatives, as part of their fact-finding process of making major decisions on mountaintop removal, coal and climate change policies, will they meet the "real" faces of coal or Big Coal mannequins?
From forged letters to fake rallies, the revelations over Big Coal's public relations machinations continue. Today's candidate for the "bogus coal front of the week" is FACES, the Federation for American Coal, Energy and Security.
Thanks to the indefatigable Appalachian Voices research team, the specious FACES front has been outed, again. So out of touch with coalfield residents and realities, the public relations firm behind the FACES pro-coal front group has even resorted to buying stock photos to use as portraits of its "supporters" and alliance "members."
Check out the "About Us" section of coalfield FACES supporters:
https://www.facesofcoal.org/?page_id=18
And then check out this great stock footage:
For more hilarious stock photos and their grafting onto the FACES website, see the Appalachian Voices blog:
https://www.appvoices.org/index.php/frontporch/blogposts/farces_of_coals_fake_supporters/
Launched last week as "an alliance of individuals from all walks of life who have joined forces to educate lawmakers and the general public about the importance of coal and coal mining to our local and national economies," a series of investigative blogs have shown that this so-called grassroots effort is simply another public relations project coordinated by an inside the Beltway firm.
DeSmog Blog author James Hoggan outed FACES yesterday, finding that: "The latest "grassroots" organization to join the public conversation on behalf of the coal industry, appears to be a project of the K-Street public relations firm, the Adfero Group, one of industry's most accommodating voices in Washington, D.C. The FACES website, which includes no contact information, is registered to Adfero.
Hoggan's post is here: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-hoggan/new-grassroots-pro-coal-g_b_268542.html
And fellow DeSmog blogger Kevin Grandia has been a blue tick hound on the trail of bogus Big Coal campaigns for ages: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-grandia
Who are the "real" faces of coal and the coalfields?
Try a Wyoming rancher, a Navajo elder, a Southern community organizer, a Latino immigrant organizer from Chicago, a young indigenous Ottawa woman from Michigan, and an Appalachian coal miner's widow--these informed coalfield residents from across the United States traveled to Washington, DC this spring to educate Obama administrators and the US Congress on the impact of coal in their communities. Read their personal stories here: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/mr-king-coals-neighborhoo_b_193280.html
Here are a few other real faces in the coalfields:
Kathy Selvage, in Wise County, Virginia:
Judy Bonds and Coal River Valley residents in West Virginia (in the Coal Country film):
Retired coal miner Ed Wiley and Maria Lambert in the West Virginia coalfields:
Or, the 1,000 coal miners that still die annually from black lung disease: