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Thursday, October 30, 2008
This is my response to a comment posted by Karen Hinton of Hinton Communications , and her client Amazon Defense Coalition regarding my takes on Chevron:
First, I work for SBS Media. The company I run. I elected to take the position I took because I feel and hold that there's a huge "knee jerk" reaction that is rather silly.
All of the Chevron folks you mention I don't even know the names of and just met. No one hugged me. Yes, they came up and introduced themselves. Cool. No one from AmazonWatch did and I had no idea who anyone looked like at all.
But I will tell ypu that your comment helps fill in "blank" regarding the creepy guys that were first looking at me, then when I looked back, looked away from me in court.
One guy -- a Latino-in-appearance-young man with a shaved head sat near me and used his Blackberry to take a photo of me. Something I could have gotten him removed from court for doing.
I had no idea who this creep was. And as a person who's gotten death threats, I have a total right to be concerned.
If he and the other person are connected to you and your organization, then I must say that the overall approach is very not mature.
I've been on either CNN or Headline News 9 times this year alone. Many people -- including you all -- know who I am. But I do not know you.
All you and these people have to do is come up to me and introduce yourself. I don't know who the hell you are. You could say "We'd like to talk to you for your video program."
Fine. I talk to everyone and give them a platform.
Why is that so hard? Please -- if these people are connected to you -- tell them to STOP their childish behavior.
But that written, if Chevron hired me, I'd work for them. I think too often there's a tendency to attack a company just because they're big. But that written, I do point to what Chevron does even when it may not be the coolest act -- but I do so from a position of telling a more balanced story -- In the case of Ecuador, there are some rather problematiic politics that complicate matters and various American companies have been treated terribly, like Occidental Petroleum -- has has my writer Robin Belker, who's moved on to bigger things overseas.
But the bottom line is that third world matters of politics don't have the same "black v. white" picture that AmazonWatch tends to paint. The truth is really much uglier than the way it's painted.
You forget that you're dealing with some of the poorest residents who have a different view of morality than you and I -- some people are good, but others are bad and some of them are the same ones you paint only a "good picture" of.
That's the truth.
You would claim to speak truth to power -- I speak truth to injustice. Period. There's a huge difference.
Labels: amazonwatch, chevron, chevron nigeria bowoto, larry bowoto
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