Hydraulic Fracturing in The United States - Media and Public Relations

Media and Public Relations

The opposition against fracking activities in local townships has led companies to adopt a variety of public relations measures to assuage fears about fracking, including the admitted use of "mil­i­tary tac­tics to counter drilling oppo­nents". At a conference where public relations measures were discussed, a senior executive at Anadarko Petroleum was recorded on tape saying, "Download the US Army / Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual, because we are dealing with an insurgency", while referring to fracking opponents. Matt Pitzarella, spokesman for the most important fracking company in Pennsylvania, Range Resources, also told other conference attendees that Range employed psychological warfare operations veterans. According to Pitzarella, the experience learnt in the Middle East has been valuable to Range Resources in Pennsylvania, when dealing with emotionally-charged township meetings and advising townships on zoning and local ordinances dealing with fracking. Furthermore, in a February 2012 campaign speech, Rick Santorum, a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination, referred to those objecting to hydraulic fracturing as environmental terrorists.

Read more about this topic:  Hydraulic Fracturing In The United States

Famous quotes containing the words public relations, media and, media, public and/or relations:

    Kirsten: So you’re the new public relations man.
    Joe: Yeah.
    Kirsten: What happened to Eddie?
    Joe: Eddie quit.
    Kirsten: I liked him. Why’d he quit?
    Joe: Well, a little matter of personal integrity. Eddie didn’t feel that getting dates for potentates was part of public relations.
    Kirsten: But isn’t it?
    Joe: Well, there’s a name for it but it’s not “public relations.”
    —J.P. (James Pinckney)

    Few white citizens are acquainted with blacks other than those projected by the media and the so—called educational system, which is nothing more than a system of rewards and punishments based upon one’s ability to pledge loyalty oaths to Anglo culture. The media and the “educational system” are the prime sources of racism in the United States.
    Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)

    The media no longer ask those who know something ... to share that knowledge with the public. Instead they ask those who know nothing to represent the ignorance of the public and, in so doing, to legitimate it.
    Serge Daney (1944–1992)

    The private citizen, beset by partisan appeals for the loan of his Public Opinion, will soon see, perhaps, that these appeals are not a compliment to his intelligence, but an imposition on his good nature and an insult to his sense of evidence.
    Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)

    I know all those people. I have friendly, social, and criminal relations with the whole lot of them.
    Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)