| By Clem Guttata
Update: 9/3/09 For those in a hurry, here are the petition links: (1) Credo, (2) Center for Biological Diversity, (3) Rain Forest Action Network. Thank you for your help!
Over at Coal Tattoo today, Ken Ward, Jr. reports on the response he tracked down from Verizon Wireless to the pressure they're getting for supporting Don Blankenship's Labor Day rally.
I asked Verizon officials for a response to all of this, and after being kicked around from office to office for a bit, I landed on the phone with Laura Merritt, a Verizon Wireless spokeswoman whose region includes West Virginia. Her response?
Basically, this was a decision at the local level to support the community. It did not involve the company's political positions at all.
In this particular situation, we are supporting the event because it's a local event. It wasn't an effort to take a position on any particular issue.
Another Verizon Wireless spokesperson, Jim Gerace, went a little farther. He said his company simply paid $1,000 for the right to be able to sell its products at the rally:
It's nothing more than that ... and the groups who are trying to make it more than that are misguided. I'm definitely bothered that people are trying to put us in the middle of an argument.
Ken Ward, Jr. also relates the responses of two coal industry executives involved with the Labor Day rally.
A Dead Zone
Verizon Wireless is yet to wake up from their dead zone of corporate irresponsibility. They have no idea how badly they misspent that $1,000. They want to make it sound like they're setting up a stand at a county fair.
There are more gaping holes in their explanation than the average horror movie plot:
(1) This isn't some local arts festival or veterans parade. Don Blankenship's Youtube invite to the event says, "We're going to have Hank Williams and have a good time but we're also going to learn how environmental extremists and corporate America are both trying to destroy your jobs."
(2) The projected crowd size dwarfs any local event for Southern West Virginia. (At the very least, an accurate description is a regional multi-state event.)
(3) International figures Ted Nugent and Lord Monckton are both notorious for controversial views (to put it mildly). Nugent is the emcee, Monckton is one of prominently featured speakers.
(4) Event sponsor Gene Kitts doesn't portray Verizon Wireless as a mere vendor in the parking lot; he specifically thanks Verizon Wireless for endorsing the event's message: "Thank you Verizon Wireless for supporting the working people who actually pay the cell phone bills, even for clueless kids." (He may be give a sugar-coated version of the message in his tweet, but he's still tying Verizon Wireless to the message.)
(5) Roger Nicholson further politicizes the event in his response, ""[S]hrill cries from anti-mining extremists re Verizon support of FOA rally. Guess it pains em to see overwhelming backlash vs. their views."
The response by Verizon Wireless makes me all the more determined to get the message out about their sponsorship. On the one hand, they're pretending their sponsorship of an overtly political event has nothing to do with the events message. On the other hand, other events sponsors are going out of their way to tell us all it is a political event.
 Roger Nicholson of Verizon Wireless should know we haven't put him "in the middle of an argument." Verizon Wireless signed up for itself. They are a huge company with huge resources. They should have known better than to sponsor this.
Act Now
Tell Verizon Wireless this is worst $1000 they've ever spent.
Sign the Credo Mobile petition.
Sign the Center for Biological Diversity petition.
If you happen to be a Verizon investor (directly or through a mutual fund), here's the list of investor relations contacts.
Photo credit: Ted Nugent by thebluedino |
