Most UK Fracking Companies Employ Expensive Spin Doctors – why?
Most large companies make their money by causing harm. For this to be sustainable, they need to convince the rest of us that in fact they’re not causing harm, but rather are an invaluable part of lives – either because of the jobs they provide, the contribution they make to the national/global economy or because owning and using the products they produce is necessary to be part of our modern and progressive societies. To help them convince the public of these alternate realities, companies employ other companies who specialise in producing a public facing image which distracts and obfuscates the unpleasant activities which make up the day-to-day business of their client. These are Public Relations companies. And the fracking industry uses them just like every other.
The fact that fracking companies rely on the services of spins doctors should immediately get you thinking about the truths they are trying to distract you from.
Fracking wannabes and long-time chemical pushers INEOS are spending April 2015 touring the Central Belt of Scotland attempting to convince communities that all the peer-reviewed science pouring out of the U.S. and Australia documenting the harm caused by fracking is nonsense. INEOS normally employ public relations giant Edelman (famous for attempting to smear the science behind anti-smoking campaigns) for their image-shining, but on their current ‘public engagement’ tour they’re working with Peter Riley of Vigo Communications. Peter is currently masquerading as an impartial facilitator during meetings…
The first time a community came up against the patronising, uniformed mumblings of Mr Riley was Duddleston, Shropshire where fracking company Dart Energy (now owned by IGas Energy) had employed him to attend one of Frack Free Dudleston‘s very well attended public meetings. On that occasion he refused to admit he wasn’t a direct employee of Dart Energy and seemed surprised that the informed audience were less than thrilled by his offerings of go-to industry myths to answer a barrage of clearly articulated questions and statements about what a fracking industry in full-production looks like.
UK fracking ‘pioneers’ (and earthquake inducers) Cuadrilla Resources also heavily rely on PR hand-holding. They previously employed the services of Bell Pottinger, but after several community blockades and company’s image continuing to bomb, they sacked the crisis-management specialists and now hope Westbourne Communications will help them convince communities that destroying vast swathes of Lancashire and the South East for a tiny amount of gas is a good idea.
