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 to help fabricate the pretext for the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. 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