The Boston Globe’s latest “Bold Types” entry sponsored by Koch Industries is out and the phrase “jumped the shark” may need to be retired. The climate denying Koch Brothers paying for a puff piece with the ocean hugging CEO of New England Aquarium?
On Tuesday afternoon I scrolled down my phone onto the home page of the Globe to find that the eighth story down was a “Bold Types” piece. I first wrote about “Bold Types” in UnKoch My Boston Globe. It’s worshipful pabulum extolling the virtues of Boston CEOs. The series is advertising but produced by real reporters so it looks like actual news. Paid for. Paid for by Koch Industries. On the home page.
[Dear Boston Globe, could you please let me know if any other home page stories have corporate sponsorship? Just DM me, our secret].
But the home page doesn’t identify the piece as sponsored by Koch Industries. So I clicked on the headline and was brought to the text introduction to a video but the text page didn’t identify Koch Industries as the sponsor either. I courageously watched the entire eight minute video, Globe business reporter Janelle Nanos interviewing New England Aquarium CEO Vikki Spruill. Koch Industries is not identified until after the credits roll.
It’s standard marketing happy talk – CEOs as heroes, public salvation through enlightened management – the sort of soft focus dross you’d expect the Kochs to pay for. But . . .
The interview prattles on about the importance of oceans to our environment, rising waters, climate change, climate resilience, helping the ocean protect our planet, etc., etc.
Jesus Mary and Joseph, Spruill and Nanos, this drivel is being paid for by the Koch Brothers! Did anyone read Jane Mayer’s Dark Money? It was on the Globe’s best sellers list forever. No one has done more to promote climate denialism and harm our planet than the Kochs.
But you know, Spruill encourages us not to use plastic straws. It can make you feel “empowered.”
Nanos asks Spruill how many “Bold Types” bold decisions she’s had to make. Oh many, she says. For instance she’s had to stand up to big time scientists and tell them, “Do you think the public understands anything about what you just said?”
How about this? The next time the Globe comes to you and says we have some free advertising for you and you don’t have to pay a penny because IT’S PAID FOR BY THE KOCHS you could boldly respond, no goddamn way.
[Disclaimer: As an educator in the UMass system I am a union member. Usually I add here that I don’t write about education, I write about dark money. I guess I have to add that I also don’t write about journalism or the environment, I write about dark money. But since dark money is everywhere, I write about virtually everything].