Posted on 04/15/2010 3:05:37 PM PDT by SmithL
The Columbia Journalism Review just published an article concerning how CBS smeared Chevron (NYSE: CVX) in its May 3, 2009 expose. This and news from the U.S. Jesuit Conference concerning San Ramon-CA based Chevron’s new policy document on human rights, crafted over the past five years in dialog with multiple “social justice” communities, paints a much different picture that frothing leftists and enviro-whackos in Richmond and worldwide generally paint about evil oil companies.
60 Minutes leads the segment by showing a polluted well that wasn’t Chevron’s responsibility to clean and which Chevron says is not polluted by petroleum at all, but rather by fecal matter. In back-and-forth emails between the news organization and oil company, provided by Chevron to me, 60 Minutes journalists don’t address Chevron’s assertion about the source of the pollution, except to say that Salinas believes his well is polluted by oil.
Overall, while a few of Chevron’s complaints are minor or can’t be substantiated, and while 60 Minutes never directly says Chevron is responsible for the pollution, 60 Minutes gives the clear impression that Chevron trashed the place and left, while downplaying the fact that Petroecuador has been operating alone at the former Texaco sites since 1990.
In other news, The Jesuit Conference of the United States said it was encouraged by last night’s first public release of Chevron Corporation’s new Policy 520 on human rights. This breakthrough follows six years of shareholder dialog with one of the world’s largest energy and oil companies. As a result of this announcement, a coalition of Jesuit groups and other religious congregations are withdrawing a 2010 shareholder resolution petitioning the development of a corporate human rights policy.
And the agreement was, when Texaco turned her properties over to Petroecuador, that Texaco's remediation was complete and acceptable, and secondly that any further remediation would be handled by Petroecuador.
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