Climate Spoof Forces Chamber To Decry ‘Public Relations Hoaxes’
Climate Spoof Forces Chamber To Decry ‘Public Relations Hoaxes’
This morning, activists from the Yes Men troupe claiming to represent the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced the organization was reversing its years of opposition to any climate bill before Congress, saying in jest that the “Kerry-Boxer Bill is a good start to a strong climate bill.” CNBC and the Fox Business Network cited the many companies who have quit the Chamber as a reason for the fictional about-face.
The Chamber of Commerce quickly tried to quash the reports that it had reversed its “Scopes monkey trial” stance. Chamber of Commerce official Eric Wohlschlegel broke into the press conference held by the Yes Men at the National Press Club, shouting, “This guy is a fake!” After a “mild shoving match at the podium,” Wohlschegel told reporters, “It is a very sad day.” U.S. Chamber of Commerce official Thomas J. Collamore decried “public relations hoaxes” and called for “law enforcement authorities to investigate this event”:
Public relations hoaxes undermine the genuine effort to find solutions on the challenge of climate change. These irresponsible tactics are a foolish distraction from the serious effort by our nation to reduce greenhouse gases.
Of course, it is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other right-wing corporate groups that have been spending hundreds of millions of dollars supporting “public relations hoaxes” to “undermine the genuine effort to find solutions on the challenge of climate change.” As PG&E Chairman and CEO Peter Darbee explained his company’s departure from the Chamber, “extreme rhetoric and obstructionist tactics seem to increasingly mark the Chamber’s stance on this issue.”
It’s doubtful that the Chamber — chaired by race-baiters and corrupt global warming deniers — will now be decrying clean coal carols, climate skeptics, fearmongering, and broken economic analyses as it spends over $100 million a year to lobby Congress.
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I’m making popcorn for everyone.
Let’s settle in and enjoy the show. ;)
October 19th, 2009 at 6:06 pm“This guy’s a fake! He can’t do these public relations hoaxes, cuz we’re already doing that! This is plagerism! Call the Police!!” Whine,whine,whine, cry,cry,cry.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:08 pmCreative activism is a wonderful thing.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:09 pmHeeneism
October 19th, 2009 at 6:13 pmUSCoC (that’s funny) IS a pr hoax.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:19 pmJeebus, DC is just a freaking monkeyhouse.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:20 pmRe: Zooey @ 1:
I’ve got the liquid refreshments.
Hot spiced cider for the teetotallers, your choice of Mirror Pond Pale Ale or Black Butte porter if you’re a beer person, or Erath pinot noir or grigio if you’re into wine.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:22 pmAtt´n: Zooey
Exactly. This story is making my vacation even more enjoyable. Gratefully, the rest of the world doesn´t follow this (yet) or I´d be embarrassed.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:26 pmYeah, only the anti-environmental groups can hire lobbying firms to send fake letters to members of Congress opposing Kerry-Boxer.
I’ll be sitting in the corner sipping a Mirror Pond, pass the popcorn please.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:26 pmT.H.E.Cat says:
Re: Zooey @ 1:
I’ve got the liquid refreshments.
Wonderful, my well water is starting to taste a little salty…
;)
October 19th, 2009 at 6:27 pmI am shocked; truly shocked that anyone would this to this fine outstanding organization. This is an outrage!
Can I have a bag of popcorn please?
October 19th, 2009 at 6:27 pmT.H.E.Cat says:
October 19th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
This is gonna be a great party. ;)
October 19th, 2009 at 6:28 pmWhy is it okay for the Chamber of Commerce to perptrate a hoax, but it’s NOT okay to perpetrate a hoax on them?
What goes around, comes around.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:34 pmI love the Yes Men.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:35 pmAbout freaking time. We have a choice. We either ignore science and die quickly or we embrace science and hope for a future.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:36 pm….psssst…..
Did you hear? The Chamber of Commerce now supports labor unions at all it members companies……
Naaa, just another hoax….
October 19th, 2009 at 6:37 pm……psssst….
Did you hear? The Chamber of Commerce now is for profit sharing for all it’s member companies employees.
Naaaa, just another hoax.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:39 pmThe yes men hoax on Halliburton with the SurvivaBall was hilarious.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:41 pmDeveloping story…
Today in Oklahoma City, Senator James Entropy spoke before the Greater Greedy Oilmen’s Ass. and tearfully acknowledged his misleading and misinformed policy statements of the past regarding the supposed hoax of global warming.
The stunned and disconsolate robber barons retired to the hotel bar in an attempt to drown their woes, only to discover that there was no more ice, and the air conditioning could no longer keep up with the 100 degree temperatures.
Noseeum News
October 19th, 2009 at 6:42 pm….pssst….
Did you hear?
The Chamber of Commerce wants all its member companies to reduce profits to give their workers more benefits and longer vacations.
Naaaa, just another hoax.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:43 pmI love that the Chamber was reassuring everyone today that they are in no way in favor of this bill and are still clinging to their factless positions on the climate.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:46 pmFrom Brad’s post;
“U.S. Chamber of Commerce official Thomas J. Collamore decried “public relations hoaxes” and called for “law enforcement authorities to investigate this event””
Well said, Collamore, an investigation is in order. The National CofC needs to be investigated for fraud; they’ve been perpetrating and perpetuating falsehoods in order to get subscription money and donations from corporate sponsors who may have had no desire to be linked to falsification of information in the public realm; that is, no corporation with intentions of staying in business needs to have its image smeared as being a corporate liar. But the National CofC persists in lying, thus making its members party to the falsehood, and in charging the members for doing it. Naughty naughty.
(I reserve the right to revisit this issue and hammer on fracking corporate executives and communications people who don’t have the good sense to do due diligence regarding what the fracking CofC is doing with their money. And hammer even harder on those corporate members who approved and propagated the lying BS put out by the National CofC. What the frack were these people thinking? Oh, sorry, they weren’t thinking of anything more than their fracking bank accounts at the end of the quarter…)
October 19th, 2009 at 6:47 pmQuick! Somebody call Ashton Kutcher! The CoC got punk’d big time!
I’ll have my popcorn without extra butter, please.
October 19th, 2009 at 6:51 pmIf I have nutritional yeast on my popcorn, will I create more greenhouse gasses?
October 19th, 2009 at 6:55 pmwow and I thought I was the only one that still popped over gas and topped with yeast. Nosseum is allright!
October 19th, 2009 at 6:57 pmLIBERAL SCALLY WAGS!
Room temperature still exists. That means you need a free-market engineered microwave to heat chili. Chili doesn’t “globally warm” itself. I just had chili. Global warming is a HOAGIE!
October 19th, 2009 at 6:59 pmJust shows how stupid and easily led the media is.
Great stunt though. Love the yes men!
October 19th, 2009 at 6:59 pmYes, what a dastardly thing to accuse the Chamber of supporting! To hell with Earth!
http://www.political-buzz.com/
October 19th, 2009 at 7:06 pmLarry Kudlow continued his bag of hammers imitation.
October 19th, 2009 at 7:11 pmThis sweet ironic humor has made my day.
October 19th, 2009 at 7:15 pmI never heard of the Yes Men until this story. They are too funny to be associated with the White House. I have no doubt that they are ecumenical in their hoaxes.
October 19th, 2009 at 7:16 pmSo now an “organization” gets hit with a little fun…and it is as if an “individual” was targeted.
Authorities should investigate? Investigate what? The stupidity of CNBC, FauxNoise, CNN?
I’ll say it again…the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is Anti-American worker, Anti-American citizen, and Anti Anything that stops a wild-wild-west system of business.
You can see their creepy agenda here:
October 19th, 2009 at 7:53 pmhttp://www.uschamber.com/
You could tell he was a fake by the way he answered people’s questions really well.
October 19th, 2009 at 7:58 pmLarry Kudlow is a veteran of years of cocaine abuse and hard liquor.
That crap has really fried his brain.
Who knows?
He may still be on the stuff.
October 19th, 2009 at 8:08 pmXisithrus says: Heeneism
… and talk about getting punked (majii)…
it’s looking like it’s time i fess up… next week, for sure…
October 19th, 2009 at 8:10 pmi really thought that whole thing was an honest goofy mistake…
shame…
What’s brilliant about this prank is that it backs the Chamber of Commerce into a legal corner. To prove defamation, they’d have to assert that “to ensure American innovation, create jobs and…provide for the needs of the American business community” would be a bad thing!
October 19th, 2009 at 8:15 pmThe Chamber of Commerce is sclerotic.
How can they claim any expertise as far as climate issues when they couldn’t even foresee the economic disaster that their Lord and Savior Bush engineered?
October 19th, 2009 at 8:23 pm_______________
Riiiiiiiiiiiight, Larry… and when trick-or-treaters leave a flaming bag of dog poo on your doorstep come Halloween, that’ll be the Obama Admin’s fault too, huh?
October 19th, 2009 at 8:33 pmYes Men, yes! They rock as usual. I doubt that the Obama admin even knows who these guys are.
October 19th, 2009 at 9:44 pmKudlow….is that the masticated roughage that turns to gas in a cows third stomach? I’ve talked to bums on the street corner with more insight into the workings of the financial markets than Kudlow the corporate gas bag.
October 19th, 2009 at 10:27 pmEric Wohlschlegel reminds me how much I hate corporate dick-heads and their fierce allegiance to sterile, meaningless corporate junk-holes like the Chamber of Commerce.
The only fraud in the video is Eric Wohlschlegel masquerading as a human.
The “Yes Men”. Absolutely perfect. Bravo, guys, bravo.
October 20th, 2009 at 12:18 amRe: Zooey @ 12:
Let’s see if we can convince dbadass to whomp up some hors d’oeuvres.
What say you, dbadass? <]:-)
October 20th, 2009 at 12:39 am.
Major Schadenfreude.
.
October 20th, 2009 at 2:30 am.
p.s.
Dear room reporters,
… And boy do I have a balloon to show YOU!
.
October 20th, 2009 at 2:33 amSoapBox says:
I’ll say it again…the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is Anti-American worker, Anti-American citizen, and Anti Anything that stops a wild-wild-west system of business.
October 20th, 2009 at 2:34 am————————————————————–
Needed repeating!
THe chamber wouldn’t even have a leg to stand on IF, the fake news actually INCREASED those now wishing to REJOIN the chamber since it shows that this stance is much more REALITY driven. Would be hysterical court room goings on:
Judge: So, you claim this person caused you harm by having this fake news event?
Chamber: Yes, they put out a story of our change in our position regarding climate change
Judge: ANd how many companies JOINED the chamber AFTER this “fake” news?
Chamber: Um,, we had all those who left over our previous position rejoin, plus about 36 other groups, but we still feel that our original position was violated.
Judge: So, you are saying that these people INCREASED your base, and yet you are suing them? WHy is that? In fact, what purpose does the chamber serve if not to promote agendas that allow the business community to come together as a community. So in effect, these people created a BETTER chamber than you have created.
Chamber: Well, the numbers may show that, but we still feel that our position which was driving members away from our organization was the right position.
Judge: I see, so in effect, you are saying that it was more important for you to maintain your position, than it was to increase your membership. What are the goals of your organization, Mr. Wohlschegel? do you know the mission statement of your organization?
Judge: I find the defendents Not-Guilty. In fact they do beeter at your job Mr. Wohlschegel.
October 20th, 2009 at 8:44 amKudlow is another of a long line of closeted right wing gays
(Rove, Mr. Widestance, Delay, Beck, etc) who need to come out of the closet, stop living a charade and accept who they are.
Until they get their own house in order, get the eff out of the nation’s business and take your psychological complexes/self identity problems with you.
October 20th, 2009 at 8:51 amJust my opinion.
“CNBC’s Larry Kudlow speculated that the Obama administration was behind this prank.”
This is not the first time (not even close) that I’ve heard Conservatives accuse “Democrats” of actually being behind something that makes Conservatives look bad (eg: Teabaggers with Obama/Hitler posters were actually Democrats trying to make them look bad).
I’ve found in the past that when Conservatives accuse Liberals/Democrats of doing something, it is because that is what THEY would do… or in fact DID, and just assume that Democrats are doing it too.
So when Kudlow accuses “the Obama Administration of producing a fake report designed to look like it came from Conservatives”, you KNOW that is because THEY did exactly that under President Bush.
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October 26th, 2009 at 6:51 am