My Account | Free Trial | Sign In
Submit site feedback
National Journal.com

nationaljournal.com > Under the Influence

NationalJournal.com Home Under the Influence Experts Experts Home Under the Influence Experts Home

National Journal's Under the Influence

Monday, November 23, 2009

Web advertising seems more prone to odd juxtapositions than the world of print. Consider the ad running alongside a story on the liberal Center for American Progress' Think Progress blog, exposing coal industry pressure on West Virginia's Democratic Sens. Jay Rockefeller and Robert Byrd.

The story features a memo from the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce pressing the two senators to oppose health care reform legislation until a cap-and-trade bill is taken off the table and the EPA is barred from regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant.

Next to the piece sits an ad from CSX extolling the environmental superiority of rail that reads "A Single CSX train carries the load of 280 trucks" and offers a link to CSX's website. What the ad doesn't say, but many environmentalists do, is that those CSX and other rail company trains are hauling an awful lot of coal. The companies have also teamed up with the coal industry to help underwrite several industry groups that oppose cap-and-trade legislation. In fact, environmentalists note, the trade publication Greenwire (subscription only) reported just a few days ago that coal companies and the nation's biggest railroad association accounted for fifty percent of the $47 million budget last year of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a leading cap-and-trade opponent.


Leave a response



Get Print-friendly version of this page E-mail this page to a friend Subscribe to comments for Incongruous Advertisers Follow us on Twitter

Add Under The Influence To Your Site

About    Contact    Employment    Reprints & Back Issues    Privacy Policy    Advertising
Copyright 2010 by National Journal Group Inc.
The Watergate · 600 New Hampshire Ave., NW Washington, DC 20037
202-739-8400· fax 202-833-8069 · NationalJournal.com is an Atlantic Media publication.