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December 19, 2017
WatchDog: EPA Offers No-Bid Media Contract; Zinke Reprimands Official on Climate Tweet, CDC Bans Phrases and More
By Joseph A. Davis, WatchDog TipSheet Editor
1. EPA No-Bid Media Contract — Clip Service or Oppo War Room?
2. Zinke Reprimands Park Superintendent for Climate Tweets
3. SEJ Joins Other Journalism Groups in Calling for Open Internet
4. CDC Bans Seven Incorrect Phrases — Including “Science-Based”
5. PEER FOIAs on Climate Change Are Illegitimate, Trump Lawyers Argue
6. Politicals and Lawyers Decide Who Gets FOIA Requests Granted
1. EPA No-Bid Media Contract — Clip Service or Oppo War Room?
Agency press offices have compiled press clips since … well, probably since the invention of press clips. But a new no-bid contract let by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s press office may be a radical new approach.
A Mother Jones reporting team uncovered a $120,000 contract with Virginia-based Republican PR firm Definers Corp. to monitor media coverage of EPA (subscription required). The firm, according to the MoJo piece, has worked for GOP candidates and the Republican National Committee, and “specializes in digging up opposition research.” Actually, the press clips and the oppo research are done by separate units of a linked cluster of firms.
It matters because EPA’s press office (following President Donald Trump’s example) has responded to unflattering news media coverage in 2017 by declaring war. For example, it has attacked Associated Press ace reporter Michael Biesecker and Pulitzer-winning New York Times gumshoe Eric Lipton by name in press releases. The Society of Environmental Journalists has objected to such tactics.
The Definers web site promises clients a “war room”-style console for monitoring media and shaping client response. An EPA spokesperson defended the no-bid letting of the contract by saying it offered substantial savings over the previous clipping service, which Mother Jones notes was not political. The MoJo piece was by Rebecca Leber, Andy Kroll and Russ Choma.
Despite EPA’s effort to dismiss Definers’ work as merely a clip service, there is evidence the firms’ employees have already done oppo research on EPA’s own employees — looking for those who may not be compliant to the new administration’s anti-regulatory agenda.
This came out in a story by the Times’ Lipton and Lisa Friedman Dec. 15. The Times story was documented by Freedom of Information Act requests by one of Definers’ employees, Allan Blutstein. Blutstein told the Times he had been searching for information on EPA employees who might be critical or resistant to the Trump-Pruitt administration. He said the FOIAs on EPA employees were unconnected to the media monitoring contract.
UPDATE: After pushback from some lawmakers, the EPA and Definers Public Affairs confirmed Dec. 19 that they had agreed to end a controversial media monitoring contract, according to the Washington Post.
2. Zinke Reprimands Park Superintendent for Climate Tweets
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke ordered Joshua Tree National Park Superintendent David Smith to fly from California to Washington so Zinke could verbally reprimand him for publishing tweets on the park’s Twitter feed that mentioned climate change.
The story was reported by Timothy Cama of The Hill.
The tweets, according to Cama, were not taken down. No formal reprimand of Smith was put in writing, because tweeting about climate is not against the law or official Interior Department policy. Secretary Zinke just doesn’t want anyone to mention it.
Human-caused climate change, scientists say, is likely to make 90 percent of the Joshua Trees in Joshua Tree National Park disappear.
3. SEJ Joins Other Journalism Groups in Calling for Open Internet
The Society of Environmental Journalists joined other journalism groups in a statement supporting “net neutrality” on Dec. 6. But on Dec. 14, the Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal the Obama-era rule aimed at leveling the online playing field.
The Online News Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and the Sunlight Foundation joined SEJ in announcing their support for net neutrality. The groups urged the FCC to hold hearings on the issue before deciding it.
Net neutrality is the policy that requires internet service providers to treat all data equally as they shuttle it through the internet — not giving an advantage in speed or priority to particular content or types of content.
The groups fear that the big internet service providers — such as Verizon — could use the technology to gain a competitive advantage when they also own companies that generate news or entertainment content. They also fear that without net neutrality rules, large and consolidated publishing companies could squeeze out smaller and independent media outlets.
The FCC’s Dec. 14 spiking of net neutrality is certain to be challenged in the courts. A growing number of state attorneys general are already lining up to sue the FCC. Congress, if it wanted to, could also quash the FCC repeal under the Congressional Review Act. Whether there are enough votes to do that is unclear.
4. CDC Bans Seven Incorrect Phrases — Including “Science-Based”
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| Photo: Centers for Disease Control |
“Vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”
Those terms are banned from use in budget documents, according to a new directive from the Centers for Disease Control. If CDC vaccine advice is “science-based,” somebody will get in trouble.
If a drug or virus may cause birth defects in a fetus, well, you don’t need to know. The consequences to public health are apparently not a concern to CDC leaders.
The directive was unearthed in a blockbuster piece by Lena H. Sun and Juliet Eilperin in the Washington Post on Dec. 15.
Although the politically incorrect phrases are known to be banned specifically in budget documents, employees believe the ban applies elsewhere in CDC.
5. PEER FOIAs on Climate Change Are Illegitimate, Trump Lawyers Argue
Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency lawyers are arguing in court that a nonprofit watchdog group has no right under the Freedom of Information Act to documents on the science supporting EPA’s climate policies.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, is in court contesting EPA’s refusal to accept its FOIA request for “documents supporting official statements” on climate. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has expressed doubt about human-caused climate change.
After being sued by PEER, Trump administration lawyers are arguing that EPA does not have to respond to the request at all.
6. Politicals and Lawyers Decide Who Gets FOIA Requests Granted
At the Interior Department, Secretary Ryan Zinke’s office is taking direct control over responses to public requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act. The word comes as several news outlets and watchdog nonprofits are seeking information about Interior’s decision to shrink national monuments.
The story came out in a Dec. 15 Washington Post piece by Dino Grandoni and Juliet Eilperin.
In the past FOIA requests were normally handled by specialized professionals in agencies’ FOIA offices. But at Interior, and apparently other agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, many requests are getting kicked upstairs. They may go to politically appointed officials in the agency head’s office or lawyers who follow political signals. This delays response.
According to the Post story, Secretary Zinke’s office took over handling of FOIA requests from all the other Interior bureaus (such as the Bureau of Land Management) which had a hand in preparing recommendations on national monuments.
* From the weekly news magazine SEJournal Online, Vol. 2, No. 48. Content from each new issue of SEJournal Online is available to the public via the SEJournal Online main page. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here. And see past issues of the SEJournal archived here.
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