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Announcement Of Chamber Shift On Global Warming Is Hoax
Zachary Roth | October 19, 2009, 11:53AM
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Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Donohue
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A press release sent out under the banner of the Chamber of Commerce, announcing a major shift in the group's position on climate change, is a hoax.
J.P. Fielder, a spokesman for the Chamber, confirmed the hoax to TPMmuckraker. He said the Chamber was unaware of who was behind it.
The name Erica Avidus is listed as a contact on the press release. A recording at the number listed for Avidus says "this is Erica Avidus with the Chamber of Commerce." But Fielder said that no one by that name works there. Avidus is Latin for "greedy."
The release declares that the Chamber "is throwing its weight behind strong climate legislation," and announces a press conference at the National Press Club this morning, at which Chamber CEO "Tom Donahue" will appear. The Chamber's CEO spells his name Donohue. And the Press Club told us earlier this morning that no such event is scheduled.
Reuters was taken in by the hoax. A Reuters report on the "news" appeared on both the web sites of both the New York Times and the Washington Post.
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calchala
October 19, 2009 12:02 PM
Looks like it came from Support and Commmittment, Inc. of Malden Street in Manhattan, NY. I'm trying to see who they're linked to.
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trblmkr
October 19, 2009 12:07 PM
I put my money on the Yes Men.
http://www.theyesmen.org/
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Derek Stodghill
October 19, 2009 12:10 PM in reply to trblmkr
I agree. The Yes Men were the first thing that came to my mind as well.
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superking
October 19, 2009 12:09 PM
Sounds like a (moderately successful) Yes Men stunt to me.
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Dorn76
October 19, 2009 12:09 PM
The MSM is so breathless for the "scoop", they have basically stopped fact-checking.
From the balloon boy to this, the MSM proves they are nothing more than bulletin boards for anyone with a little media savvy to manipulate.
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calchala
October 19, 2009 12:11 PM in reply to Dorn76
In fairness, it looked like it came from the Chamber. I don't think this is the equivalent of Balloon Boy, although, if the email is remarkably different than an email from the chamber, then we could look at that.
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Dorn76
October 19, 2009 2:28 PM in reply to calchala
Could we not expect major news orgs to say, place a call or send an email to the Chamber to get a confirmation or a comment on this major policy shift before posting it as "news"?
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Walter Mitty
October 19, 2009 12:11 PM
And CoC gets "free publicity" for being against climate change reforms. And they just recently admitted that they don't have 2M members but rather 200,000 - they were padding their numbers by counting completely unaffiliated state and local COC members for years and years.
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calchala
October 19, 2009 12:14 PM in reply to Walter Mitty
But is it useful publicity? How does it look to state that you don't believe in climate change? Seems to be a pretty fringey viewpoint.
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EH
October 19, 2009 12:27 PM in reply to Walter Mitty
We can banter about whether all publicity is good publicity, but the CoC has been abjectly silent on the topic of the recent exodus. This forced them to come out of the shadows, for whatever reason. I'd say Mr. Donohue would prefer that his stock image not be getting extra web hits over this.
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remarks123
October 19, 2009 12:17 PM
avidus m. adjective (feminine avida, neuter avidum); first/second declension
1. Greedy, avaricious, covetous.
2. Eager, desiring, desirous; lustful, passionate.
3. (for food) Eager, hungry, voracious, gluttonous; insatiable.
4. (of space) Vast, wide, large.
Etymology: From aveō (“‘wish, desire, long for, crave’”).
FWIW
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remarks123
October 19, 2009 12:37 PM in reply to remarks123
To clarify: the press release came from one "Erica Avidus"
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ShawnATL
October 19, 2009 12:27 PM
Pretty funny. A press release? Oh, that is rich. And Reuters ran it? Ha ha ha!
Bet everyone down at CNN is having a good cathartic laugh right now.
So, poetic that it was the CoC at the center. And shoddy, lazy journalism is also in question. And you and I sit here and laugh at it all.
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Eric Jaffa
October 19, 2009 12:31 PM
I disagree with Joshua Marshall's wording of "The chamber confirms it was punk'd."
The chamber wasn't fooled.
Someone sent out a fake press release supposedly from them. No big deal.
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Cool Blue Reason
October 19, 2009 1:10 PM in reply to Eric Jaffa
If a couple of political activists manage to get several major media outlets to run headline stories claiming that you have reversed a major policy -- one that is a matter of controversy among your membership and which has resulted in several high-profile defections in recent weeks -- then, yeah, I would say that qualifies as "punk'd."
Having to make media statements that effectively read, "No, we're still knuckle-draggers on this subject," doesn't exactly help them out on the PR front.
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Official A
October 19, 2009 1:48 PM
Is that alleged photo of President Donohue part of the stunt, too? Looks like Henry Gibson.
"A press release, by Henry Gibson".
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unknowncitizen
October 19, 2009 2:05 PM
Zach Roth makes no mention of where the suspicion of a Hoax originated. His call to the Chamber and the phony source are reported as independent actions of TPM. Was his calls prompted by anything other than independent investigation?
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JimmyBobby
October 19, 2009 2:22 PM
I'm sure this is just me being an old poopy-head, but isn't "Obama And Clinton Unveil New Sudan Policy" deserving of a bigger font on the front page than this silliness?
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notsnot
October 19, 2009 2:25 PM
Would someone make some news real quick like? Seeing that snakelike visage on TPM's front page is unnerving me.
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midnight rambler
October 19, 2009 2:58 PM
Did any of those news organizations actually read the press release and (especially) the "prepared remarks"? If they did, did lines like this not set off some suspicions?
Also, nobody's mentioned the origin of the "spokesman", Hingo Sembra. "Sembra" is Italian for "seems". The first thing that comes up on Google for "hingo" is an entry from urbandictionary.com:
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