Last week a FoxNews host catapulted a book to the top of the NYTimes list by trying earnestly to skewer its author, a noted comparative religion scholar and New Testament specialist, for the temerity of writing a book about Jesus while simultaneously being himself Muslim. Boy, did the writer give better than he took. Now he's swimming in royalty pro$pect$ too. In the "No Publicity Is Bad Publicity" canon is this corollary: any attempt to punish via bad publicity may backfire something fierce.
That came to mind upon seeing the kerfuffle among several environmental analysts and scholars over a fund-raiser for Oklahoma's Senateor James M. Inhofe. The political hat-passing occurred at the Washington DC lobbying offices for Google on the second floor of a shiny, energy-efficient (LEED Gold and Energy Star certified) building at 1101 New York Avenue. Each of the 17 irked environmentalists, scientists, and policy experts is a former "Google Climate Science Commuication Fellow" and each therefore is on the side of the angels not to mention mainstream science by regarding climate change as one of mankind's paramount challenges. They sent a public letter to Google's two top execs, Chm. Eric Schmidt and CEO Larry Page. It asks them "to reconsider their support for Inhofe." If Google does not, they warn, the company's reputation and long term business success are at risk. Hmm. It is unclear how much the Inhofe event raised for him. It would be no surprise that by spotlighting the affair this way the letter writers raised for his campaign an even larger pile.
The letter is discussed, with its full text as well, today in the NY Times:
- Dot Earth – Andrew C. Revkin: Google's Science Fellows Challenge the Company's Fund-Raising for Senator Inhofe;
That Google, a corporation noted for its green and broadly Earth-friendly initiatives and sales pitch persona plays both sides of the political aisle in DC is not fresh news. Revkin reviews the general history in his post. He also includes good stuff on Google's confluence of interest with Inhofe (it has a data center in OK). For a recent but pre-letter news story example of news coverage:
- Time Magazine / Swampland blog (Jul 12) Alex Altman: Google Upsets Environmentalists, Plays DC Money Game ;
In part, the dudgeon level is peculiar. Why did it take Inhofe to set off alarms about Google on the saner side of the climate policy debate? Thanks to a lead in Revkin's post, one discovers that the Inhofe soiree is on a web calendar of events, kept by a non-partisan outfit, that includes many other events in the same Google-hosted venue: PoliticalPartyTime. Events for the Heartland Values PAC, and others for GOP Senators from Wyoming and South Dakota have been at Google DC before Inhofe got in line.
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