Verizon targeted for support of pro-coal rally
The big Friends of America rally on Labor Day sounds like it’s going to be quite an event, with a crowd, as reported today by my collegue Davin White, that will rival or surpass a Mountaineer home football game.
Folks from Massey Energy and International Coal Group are promoting the event big-time, and it’s obvious that the music and the political message have a huge audience in the coalfields of Southern West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky and beyond.
But now, several major environmental groups are trying to gear up an attack on one of the event’s other corporate sponsors — Verizon Wireless.
Jeff Biggers kicked off the movement with this piece on The Huffington Post, and West Virginia Blue gets the award for best headline of the week for the post, Can you hear us now?
But two other organizations have also joined the call for Verizon to drop its sponsorship of the event.
Jeff Biggers, the authors of The United States of Appalachia, wrote at Huffpo:
Verizon Wireless Dumped Glenn Beck: Will It Dump Bizarre Big Coal Sponsorship?
Verizon Wireless joined dozens of other companies last week in dumping its ads on Glenn Beck's Fox New Channel program. Due to Beck's "controversial track record," Verizon Wireless spokesman Jim Gerace told Color of Change organizers: "We made a decision that we don't want to be advertising on that program for a lot of reasons."
Glenn Beck's controversial track record pales in comparison to Massey Energy's aggressive mountaintop removal mining operations in Appalachia, which have literally displacedAmerican citizens from their native homes, polluted watersheds, busted unions and torn communities, and destroyed untold thousands of acres of hardwood forests and mountains in our nation's oldest range.
Millions of Verizon Wireless's customers want to know: Will Verizon Wireless dump its misguided sponsorship of Massey Energy's bizarre rally on September 7th in West Virginia, which features infamous climate-change-denier Lord Christopher Monckton, Third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, Ted Nugent--who told Barack Obama to "suck on my machine gun"--and Massey CEO Don Blankenship, who referred to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as "greeniacs" and "crazy."
According to Coal Tattoo journalist Ken Ward today, Verizon Wireless spokesman Jim Gerace, "said his company simply paid $1,000 for the right to be able to sell its products at the rally." Gerace added: "It's nothing more than that ... and the groups who are trying to make it more than that are misguided. I'm definitely bothered that people are trying to put us in the middle of an argument."
Lord have mercy, Gerace is bothered?
After nearly four decades of enduring daily rounds of millions of pounds of ammonium nitrate/fuel oil explosives ripping through their communities and mountains, dealing with blasting, flyrock, silica dust, selenium pollution, contaminated watersheds and streams, entrenched poverty and a devastated economy blocked from any diversification or job development, coalfield residents are sorta bothered, too.
Perhaps Verizon Wireless customers can send around some of these photos of mountaintop removal sites and coal sludge impoundments.
Does Gerace know that a Massey subsidiary in eastern Kentucky dumped over 300 million gallons of toxic sludge into the area's waterways and aquifers in 2000, or that Massey paid $20 million in penalties for dumping more toxic mine waste into the region's waterways in 2008; or that Massey paid a record $4.2 million for civil and criminal fines in the death of two coal miners in West Virginia? That's just for starters.
(This week, Massey's union-busted thugs harassed nonviolent tree-sitters.)
Millions of Americans, including millions of Verizon Wireless customers, are aware of the egregious human rights and environmental violations caused by mountaintop removal, which former Vice President Al Gore called a "crime, and ought to be treated as a crime."
And their outrage at Verizon Wireless's sponsorship of Massey Energy's carnival is growing.
The Center for Biological Diversity, with 250,000 members, has called on Verizon Wireless to withdraw its sponsorship or face a boycott.
Credo Mobile has started a petition to get Verizon Wireless out of bed with "anti-environment extremists."
West Virginia activists and other Southern writers have written an amazing breakdown of Verizon Wireless's "dead zone" through its sponsorship.
NRDC blogger Rob Perks hascalled on Verizon Wireless to hang up on climate change deniers.
The Nation magazine has issued a challenge to change service if Verizon Wireless doesn't dump its support.
Evenbirdsocieties are calling for Verizon Wireless to pull out.
Rainforest Action Network, along with many environmental and citizens organizations, have launched write-incampaigns.
Can you hear us now, Verizon Wireless?
Time to dump Massey Energy with Glenn Beck.
Verizon Wireless is waffling on their answers for participating in this rally.
Verizon targeted for support of pro-coal rally
I asked Verizon officials for a response to all of this, and after being kicked around from office to office for a bit, I landed on the phone with Laura Merritt, a Verizon Wireless spokeswoman whose region includes West Virginia. Her response?
Basically, this was a decision at the local level to support the community. It did not involve the company’s political positions at all.
In this particular situation, we are supporting the event because it’s a local event. It wasn’t an effort to take a position on any particular issue.
Another Verizon Wireless spokesperson, Jim Gerace, went a little farther. He said his company simply paid $1,000 for the right to be able to sell its products at the rally:
It’s nothing more than that ... and the groups who are trying to make it more than that are misguided. I’m definitely bothered that people are trying to put us in the middle of an argument.
Clem Guttata analyzes Verizon's answers in Verizon Wireless Hits a Dead Zone: (shown here for your convenience, the entire blog entry is below)
A Dead Zone
Verizon Wireless is yet to wake up from their dead zone of corporate irresponsibility. They have no idea how badly they misspent that $1,000. They want to make it sound like they're setting up a stand at a county fair.
There are more gaping holes in their explanation than the average horror movie plot:
(1) This isn't some local arts festival or veterans parade. Don Blankenship's Youtube invite to the event says, "We're going to have Hank Williams and have a good time but we're also going to learn how environmental extremists and corporate America are both trying to destroy your jobs."
(2) The projected crowd size dwarfs any local event for Southern West Virginia. (At the very least, an accurate description is a regional multi-state event.)
(3) International figures Ted Nugent and Lord Monckton are both notorious for controversial views (to put it mildly). Nugent is the emcee, Monckton is one of prominently featured speakers.
(4) Event sponsor Gene Kitts doesn't portray Verizon Wireless as a mere vendor in the parking lot; he specifically thanks Verizon Wireless for endorsing the event's message: "Thank you Verizon Wireless for supporting the working people who actually pay the cell phone bills, even for clueless kids." (He may be give a sugar-coated version of the message in his tweet, but he's still tying Verizon Wireless to the message.)
(5) Roger Nicholson further politicizes the event in his response, ""[S]hrill cries from anti-mining extremists re Verizon support of FOA rally. Guess it pains em to see overwhelming backlash vs. their views."
The response by Verizon Wireless makes me all the more determined to get the message out about their sponsorship. On the one hand, they're pretending their sponsorship of an overtly political event has nothing to do with the events message. On the other hand, other events sponsors are going out of their way to tell us all it is a political event.
 Roger Nicholson of Verizon Wireless should know we haven't put him "in the middle of an argument." Verizon Wireless signed up for itself. They are a huge company with huge resources. They should have known better than to sponsor this.
Act Now
Tell Verizon Wireless this is worst $1000 they've ever spent.
Sign the Credo Mobile petition.
Sign the Center for Biological Diversity petition.
If you happen to be a Verizon investor (directly or through a mutual fund), here's the list of investor relations contacts.
Photo credit: Ted Nugent by thebluedino
MTR and this so-called Labor Day Rally both stink.
Legacy of Coal is a newly-launched diary series inspired by the panels at Netroots Nation. We hope to publicize the issues around coal use and mining, including MTR, the damage to less-politically-powerful areas of our country, and the general impact of energy and economic policy. Of course, this leads to the broader issues of climate change, health care, and human rights. While none of us can know everything about these issues, it is by working together we can make a difference. If you would like to guest-host, please contact me at jlms_qkwATxmissionDOTcom. This diary series is dedicated to our country's coal miners and the people waiting for them to come home.
cross-posted at dailykos.com. Available for cross-posting at other sites, leave a comment or email me. |
