Now Verizon says it's not boycotting Beck

Well, the Verizon saga continues. We know Verizon Wireless hears us now, as you can see above from a visit to my blog this morning. But Corporate Strategy and Policy chief Jim Gerace's (email, 908-559-7508) says says bloggers got the Glenn Beck story wrong. In his interview w. Steven Mufson for today's WaPo story, "Verizon Wireless Criticized by Green Groups for Backing Event," he says,

We never pulled ads....We had a commitment to Fox for a number of ads. They placed them. We satisfied that commitment, and the last time any ad of ours ran in that time slot was Aug. 11 -- about a week before bloggers attacked.

He also is staying put on Verizon's sponsorship of the pro-mtr Rally for America.

Nobody knows what pullout means. All the damage is done. All the publicity for the event went out with our name on it . . . There's nothing else to do....we also can't allow the blogosphere to run our business.

He appears to be following the advice in the SF Advertizing Age's September 2 article, "Verizon Catches Flak for Backing Rally Put on by Coal Producer: Local Sponsorship Undermines National Effort by Marketer to Establish Green Bona Fides," In it, author Rita Chang (email) interviewed Marc Hausman, president-CEO of Strategic Communications Group (who also blogged on being contacted for the story.) while Hauser says that

Any level of participation in an event as a sponsor, supporter or even attendee lends the credibility of your corporate brand to that event or cause

and that he advises clients to steer clear of emotional, hot-button issues, he says that in the current case,

They've already taken the knocks; if they pull back now, they risk making the other side unhappy.

Verizon thought it was a great idea to invest $1,000 in the rally and get to table at the anti-mtr Rally for America. I wonder if the notice the support garnered has given the company any second thoughts? Chang also wrote,

Verizon Wireless, which has been trying to establish its green credentials nationally, is finding itself in hot water with environmentalists blasting it for local sponsorship of a rally organized by a coal producer....

Massey Energy, which last year agreed to pay a $20 million settlement to resolve Clean Water Act violations at coal mines in West Virginia and Kentucky. The Environmental Protection Agency said in a release on its website dated Jan. 17, 2008, that the settlement was the largest civil penalty in its history levied against a company for wastewater-discharge-permit violations.

In the WaPo, Mufson explained that

Verizon executives also said they are reluctant to tell legions of local managers that they lack the authority to take initiatives. Verizon says that the West Virginia sales team saw this as a music event and marketing opportunity; after all, the throngs that show up Monday won't come because of the Waxman-Markey bill or speakers such as Lord Monckton, 3rd Viscount of Brenchley, who served as an adviser to former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and asserts that human activity is not causing climate change.

Of course Verizon Wireless in WV is not the only local office siding w. the climate change deniers. Back in August Greenpeace released a copy of an email from the American Petroleum Institute (API) about its series of “Energy Citizen” during Congress's August recess.

The objective of these rallies is to put a human face on the impacts of unsound energy policy.... At the rallies, we will focus our message on...the adverse impacts of unsound energy policy (e.g., Waxman-Markey-like legislation, tax increases, and access limitations) on jobs and on consumers’ energy costs.

For the first soiree in Houston, TX, Anadark Petroleum Corporation ponied up four buses for a start (with more, if there was a waiting list, and let its employees start loading at loading at 10:15 a.m. for 11:30 company picnic (er, rally) complete with free hot dogs and sodas at the venue.

And guess where the venue for that first rally was on August 10? Yup, you're right if you guessed Verizon Wireless Center. (hat tip to Kevin Grandia of the DeSmogBlog.) But seriously, Kevin, I'm wondering if that was at the actual company center or at the Amphitheater for which Verizon purchased naming privileges.

Can you hear us yet?

Banner from Verizon Wireless's Verizon Wireless' Green Initiatives

Well, it's almost Labor Day Weekend, and no word from Verizon Wireless about its sponsorship of the Friends of America rally. See my August 31 post, "Can you hear us now? Verizon Wireless sponsors climate denial rally."

So imagine my merriment, when I read on the company's website how

Verizon Wireless works every day to protect our environment and give our customers opportunities to do the same.

Verizon even headlines one section on paperless billing

Save Trees When Accessing Account Information

There's some kind of disconnect here. Does Lowell McAdam or his guy in charge of Corporate Strategy and Policy, Jim Gerace (email, 908-559-7508), realize that mountaintop removal operations don't even take the time to harvest the timber, calling it and topsoil (and the mountain blasted to rubble) overburden--material which lies above the thin seams of coal which have caught their economic interest.

When I was writing August 31, In that post, I asked David Pogue to have his readers join in writing Verizon to complain. Dan wrote back,

thanks for the heads-up! Nicely done!

I sure wish he had joined us in getting the word out. The last time he wrote about Verizon Wireless's shortcomings, he drew a letter to his publisher from Mr. McAdam, himself.

Instead we're being dissed as a local issue. I say this because while Verizon backed down from its support of Glen Beck, in response to a campaign by Color of Change, the company was not as reponsive to questions regarding the rally by Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette. He writes:

I asked Verizon officials for a response to all of this, and after being kicked around from office to office for a bit, I landed on the phone with Laura Merritt, a Verizon Wireless spokeswoman whose region includes West Virginia. Her response?

Basically, this was a decision at the local level to support the community. It did not involve the company’s political positions at all.

In this particular situation, we are supporting the event because it’s a local event. It wasn’t an effort to take a position on any particular issue.

Another Verizon Wireless spokesperson, Jim Gerace, went a little farther. He said his company simply paid $1,000 for the right to be able to sell its products at the rally:

It’s nothing more than that … and the groups who are trying to make it more than that are misguided. I’m definitely bothered that people are trying to put us in the middle of an argument.

I almost raised the point about Beck in the August 31 post, but ran out of time. As my regular readers know, I write this blog from the library and that imposes a deadline. But, now I won't have to spell it out, thanks to the latest post by Jeff Biggers, "Verizon Wireless Dumped Glenn Beck: Will It Dump Bizarre Big Coal Sponsorship?"

So, if Verizon Wireless still wants to back the rally, maybe it would like to replace its banner with this photoshop illustration by wag "One Citizen" of Charleston WV, which accompanied his or her post, "Verison Wireless To Unveil New Sport Featuring Its New Anti-Environmental Stance."



Meanwhile the opposition grows. The Center for Biological Diversity sent out a news release dated September 1, on how it had launched a campaign asking folks to write letters threatening a boycott of Verizon for its support of mountaintop removal. Today it came out with a letter from an additional 33 environmental groups:

1. Broadened Horizons Organic Teaching Farm
2. Caney Fork Headwaters Association
3. Chesapeake Climate Action Network
4. Christians Caring for Creation
5. Coal River Mountain Watch
6. Cumberland Countians for Peace and Justice
7. Defenders of Wildlife
8. Ecumenical Ecojustice Network
9. Endangered Habitats League
10. Environmental Protection Information Center
11. Florida League of Conservation Voters
12. Floridians Against Incinerators In Disguise
13. Friends Committee on National Legislation
14. Friends of the Earth
15. Friends of the Northern San Jacinto Valley
16. Global Exchange
17. Grand Canyon Wildlands Council
18. Great Old Broads for Wilderness
19. Greenpeace USA
20. HOPE (Help Our Polluted Environment) in Taylor County, FL
21. Kentucky Heartwood
22. Kids to the Country
23. Mid South Mediation Services
24. Natural Resources Defense Council
25. Network for Environmental & Economic Responsibility
26. New Sustainability Project
27. Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition
28. Public Resource Associates
29. Rainforest Action Network
30. Responsible Endowments Coalition
31. San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society
32. Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards
33. Tennessee Environmental Council
    

The website adds these 11 groups who approved the letter after the 4 p.m. deadline:

1. Allegheny Defense Project
2. Appalachian Voices
3. Bull Mountain Land Alliance
4. California Chaparral Institute
5. Clinch Coalition
6. Energy Justice Network
7. Highlands Nature Sanctuary
8. Native Forest Council
9. Rainforest Relief
10. SustainUS: US Youth for Sustainable Development
11. Tennessee Forests Council

Environmental Action has lauched a campaign September 2, "Tell Verizon to Dump Big Coal."

Scott Parking of Rainforest Action Network announced a campaign on September 2 and updates us on Verizon's response to the CREDO campaign against Verizon's participation in the rally in his post at It's Getting Hot in Here: Verizon Wireless: Open Mouth, Insert Mountain. (Of course I'd recommend any of the non-profit campaigns over CREDO, which can be accused of having a tiny conflict of interest in this particular case.

But I'd suggest a direct email or phone call, rather than signing a petition if you have time. You can go to any of the campaigns above and find suggested talking points. And go to my August 31 post for the contact information.

So, " reach out and touch someone" as AT&T likes to say. After all, Verizon is one of the products of the ATT&T breakup. So Verizon Wireless, can you hear us yet?

Can you hear us now? Verizon Wireless sponsors climate denial rally

Photo of Ted Nugent from Rolling Stone story, "Ted Nugent Threatens to Kill Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton During Vicious Onstage Rant.

~

New York Times columnist David Pogue drew the attention of Verizon Wireless CEO when he wrote about the cell phone industry. In his latest efforts as journalist and gadfly, he's conducting a "Take Back the Beep" campaign to get the companies to stop making money off of customers with their long instruction messages for voice mail. In summing up his success, he wrote,

Next up: war, disease and global warming.

I'm going to take him up on that and invite him let his readers know that folks are writing Lowell McAdam, President and CEO of Verizon Wireless, asking that he issue a public apology and withdraw support from the Friends of America Rally, a pro-coal extravaganza to promote climate change denial and mountaintop removal mining. Put on by the Friends of Coal, it even has a YouTube invitation by Massey's CEO Don Blankenship (Friends of Coal is an astroturf group for the West Virginia Coal Association.).

Hello I'm Don Blankenship and I'd like to invite you to a Labor Day rally in West Virginia. We're going to have Hank Williams and have a good time but we're also going to learn how environmental extremists and corporate America are both trying to destroy your jobs.

You can read about the rally, as detailed by Ken Ward in the Charleston Gazette. (UPDATE: 9/1/09, he writes about Verizon here.) There has been coverage by Peter Rothberg in The Nation, following up on a post by Jeff Biggers at HuffPo. Speakers include prominent global warming denier Lord Christopher Monckton and conservative pundit Sean Hannity, with Ted Nugent and others (including a WV State Policemproviding the music. Ted Nugent is a real charmer, having ranted, while waving a machine gun around:

Obama, he's a piece of sh_t. I told him to suck on my machine gun. Hey Hillary, You might want to ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless b_tch"

Verizon may call its co-sponsorship of the rally advertising, not a political statement, but Pogue;s colleague at the NYT, Adam Liptak, reported how Verizon Wireless, unlike other carriers, decided to block NARAL Pro-Choice America's text messages from its network.

So if you want to write McAdam, his email is Lowell McAdam's email is:

Lowell.C.McAdam@verizonwireless.com

And as Jeff suggests, why not write the head of Verizon, too. Dennis Strigl is President and Chief Operating Officer of Verizon Communications. His email is:

Dennis.Strigl@verizonwireless.com

If you like snail mail or the phone, Verizon HQ is:

1 Verizon Way
Basking Ridge, NJ 07920-1097
(908) 559-7000‎

Ten years ago, Julia Fox of University of Oregon and later Marshall University published a journal article called "Mountaintop Removal in West Virginia: An Environmental Sacrifice Zone." It later became the second chapter of 2005 edition of the book Environmental Sociology. In the abstract she says:

Although the coal industry is regulated by the state and national governments, the regulators, it is argued, have been captured by Big Coal. The result is one of the most egregious and little-known instances of environmental degradation taking place in the United States today.

Well, things haven't gotten any better and Verizon shouldn't be casting its lot with the ravagers.

So, Mr. McAdam, can you hear us now?