Hill+Knowlton Strategies
Propaganda Campaigns
Steel Pollution
The PR firm known today as Hill+Knowlton Strategies was founded in 1927 with the Otis Steel Company in Cleveland, Ohio as a major first client.[1][2]
For the next 30 years, the firm had a reputation for defending the steel industry in public relations campaigns, including against striking workers most notoriously in the steel strike of 1952. [2][3]
Throughout this time, the steel industry not only had a known devastating environmental impact in terms of land contamination and Air Pollution in the areas surrounding manufacturing centers, it was also a central driver of industrial fossilization and greenhouse gas pollution.
A study conducted by CarbonBrief in 2021 found that the steel industry today remains responsible for 9-11% of global CO2 emissions, due to the fossil-fuel intense process used to manufacture it.[4][5]
Tobacco & Cancer
Starting in the 1950s, when the scientific consensus establishing the direct causal link between tobacco abuse, cigarette smoke, and lung cancer was established, Hill & Knowlton was hired as a PR agent for decades to protect the industry's profits and deny the enormous harm of the tobacco epidemic. [6]
Pollution Denial
Hill+Knowlton Strategies co-founded in the 1970s the Asbestos Information Association, which by denying the health risks of asbestos is responsible for thousands of lost lives.[7] Hill+Knowlton was also involved in similar practices concerning lead, vinyl chloride[8] and CFC.[9] During many of these operations Hill+Knowlton worked with notorious climate denier Fred Singer.
Money Laundering
In the 1980s, Hill + Knowlton represented the Bank of Commerce Credit International (BCCI) during its money laundering scandal. Until BCCI's conviction, the firm pressured regulators not to investigate the bank.[10][11]
Invasions of Iraq
In 1990, Hill + Knowlton Strategies was paid $10 million to elicit false testimony in Congress to fabricate a pretext for former President and CIA Director George H.W. Bush's planned invasion of Iraq [12] [13]. The testimony elicited was proven false after the invasion.[14][15]
Starting in 1991, Mark McKinnon, the Vice Chairman of Public Strategies (now part of Hill + Knowlton Strategies), worked on a number of high-profile Texas political campaigns which earned him the media appellation "the Spin Doctor."[16][17] After meeting then Governor George W. Bush at a dinner at the governor's mansion, McKinnon and Bush developed a personal relationship. According to Karl Rove, "Bush and McKinnon clicked from moment one. In a bow to McKinnon's cool image, Bush dubbed him 'M-Kat.'" McKinnon claimed he was charmed by Bush Jr.'s "compassion." [18] He went on to lead the advertising and media team for Bush's gubernatorial campaign in 1998, and became president of Maverick Media, created for the purpose of electing Bush as president.[19] He was the chief media advisor and advertising director of Bush's first and second presidential campaigns, and was appointed by Bush to serve as a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, responsible for the U.S. government's international broadcasting programs.[20][21]
Over at the Pentagon, Donald Rumsfeld drafted Victoria Clarke as his director of public affairs. Before becoming Rumsfeld’s mouthpiece, she had commanded Hill and Knowlton’s D.C. office.[22][23] As Rumsfeld’s Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, Clarke oversaw the implementation of a psychological operations campaign involving more than 75 retired military officers who met regularly with Pentagon officials and served as unofficial conduits for broadcasting pro-war propaganda on large corporate newscasts including Fox News, CNN, NBC, ABC and CBS.[24] Together, these officers circulated and amplified falsehoods such as the claim that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction.[25] In the run-up to the war, Bush Administration officials made over five hundred false claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.[26]
Fracking
Hill & Knowlton has worked closely to generate propaganda for the fracking industry in recent years.[27]
COP 27
In November 2022, Hill & Knowlton, as official PR firm for the COP27 climate summit in Egypt, was criticized by scientists and environmentalists for having an appalling conflict of interest due to its century-long track record of pollution denial on behalf of fossil fuel and other industries.[28][29]
Scope
Hill & Knowlton represents or has represented up to 50% of the corporations on the Fortune 500 list.[30][31]
Sources
- ↑ Scott M. Cutlip (2013). The Unseen Power. Routledge. ISBN 9781136690006. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Jeffrey Goodell (9 September 1990). "What Hill & Knowlton Can Do for You, (And What It Couldn't Do for Itself)". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
- ↑ Karen Miller. Business and Economic History Volume 24 (PDF). Business History Conference. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 May 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
- ↑ https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-these-553-steel-plants-are-responsible-for-9-of-global-co2-emissions/
- ↑ https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidrvetter/2021/08/19/how-sweden-delivered-the-worlds-first-fossil-fuel-free-steel/?sh=345af9a06b55
- ↑ http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/zkh84c00
- ↑ https://cprlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/AIA-Article-AJPH.pdf
- ↑ Doubt is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health, David Michaels, 2008, chapter 5
- ↑ Optimistic Environmentalist, The: Progressing Towards a Greener Future, David R. Boyd, ECW Press, 2015
- ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=pTr8AQAAQBAJ&q=Hill+and+Knowlton+BCCI
- ↑ http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-08-21/business/1991233107_1_mankiewicz-relations-clients-international-clients
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/education/2001/oct/04/socialsciences.highereducation
- ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=uWadPwAACAAJ&q=Toxic+Sludge+is+Good+For+You:+Lies,+Damn+Lies+and+the+Public+Relations+Industry+Paperback+by+John+Stauber
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/14/business/the-media-business-advertising-a-dispute-in-the-public-relations-industry.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20190407152520/https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1992-07-08-9202180589-story.html
- ↑ http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2008/05/where-are-they-now-mark-mckinnon/
- ↑ http://www.texasmonthly.com/1996-11-01/feature5-1.php
- ↑ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/architect/interviews/mckinnon.html
- ↑ http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2008/05/where-are-they-now-mark-mckinnon/
- ↑ https://projects.publicintegrity.org/consultants/default.aspx?act=profiles&pid=2
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20090716161937/http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/2707
- ↑ https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/20/how-they-sold-the-iraq-war/
- ↑ http://www.spacewar.com/2003-a/030616173206.f68gs5zs.html
- ↑ Barstow, David. “Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand,” The New York Times, April 20, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/us/20generals.html
- ↑ Blumenthal, Sidney. “Bush knew Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction,” Salon, September 6, 2007. https://www.salon.com/2007/09/06/bush_wmd/
- ↑ Reading-Smith Mark, et al. “Search the 935 Iraq War false statements,” The Center for Public Integrity, July 1, 2004. https://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/06/24/14969/search-935-iraq-war-false-statements
- ↑ http://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/grey-energizes-americas-natural-gas-alliance-100371
- ↑ https://cleantechnica.com/2022/11/06/400-scientists-call-out-cop27-pr-firm-for-supporting-fossil-fuel-clients/
- ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/04/environmentalists-slam-corporate-influence-un-climate-talks/
- ↑ http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/410/18/97357.html
- ↑ http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=1007204