UPDATE (May 6 @ 5;45 p.m.): We have obtained two letters related to the Chevron case. One is by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo ( Cuomo Letter.pdf), and the second is from Amnesty International to Cuomo ( Amnesty Letter to Cuomo.pdf)

 This past Sunday, "60 Minutes" aired a tough piece about oil pollution in the Amazon region of Ecuador and the massive lawsuit by some 30,000 Ecuadorans against American corporate giant Chevron.

(View the "60 Minutes" piece: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4988079n)

But weeks before the May 3 CBS program, the oil company was already fighting back through an Internet video narrated by former CNN television newsman Gene Randall that portrayed Chevron in a more positive light. Randall's video blamed much of Ecuador's oil pollution problems on its state-owned oil firm, and it downplayed criticism from Ecuadorans and their lawyers about Chevron's responsibility for toxic oil wastes in many Ecuadoran rivers and streams owing to more than two decades of oil drilling by Texaco, which Chevron bought in 2001.

(View Randall's video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YMCGC-2ytE)

Randall's news report has an authentic feel - but the video was paid for by Chevron, which hired Randall last fall, not long after the company got wind that "60 Minutes" was working on a big story.

"I don't portray it as a piece of journalism, but I used journalistic techniques in telling Chevron's side of the story," Randall said in an interview. "I belong among the people who don't think Chevron has gotten a fair shake over the years."

Randall, now a corporate consultant who has done one other project for Chevron, worked with the Alexandria, Va. firm CRC Public Relations to produce the video. He would not say how much he was paid. Two environmental groups have called on Chevron to cease airing the video unless it discloses its role.

Randall's project is just one part of Chevron's legal, lobbying and PR full-court press to influence a court proceeding in Ecuador that could result in civil damages of up to $27 billion against the company. A court in Ecuador is expected to rule this year.

To find out more about this environmental mess, read this blog: www.thechevronpit.blogspot.com