Billboards

=<div>it's an odd medium?  a stunt to be reported? unabomber?</div><div>
</div><div>pseudo-event?  rural?
<div>
</div><div>=</div><div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2022/10/dark-money-groups-gop-senate/</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 10 22 comm dr</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><strong>The finding comes a month after Senate Republicans tanked a bill that would have required dark money groups to disclose their donors and funding sources.</strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Shadowy organizations that are legally allowed to hide their donors have pumped nearly $1 billion into the Republican Party's effort to retake the U.S. Senate, </span>according to an <em>NPR</em> analysis released Saturday.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><b>In total, <em>NPR</em> found that "more than $1.6 billion has been spent or booked on TV ads in a dozen Senate races, with $3 out of every $4 being spent in six states—Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Ohio.</b>"</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">"Most of that money is coming from dark money outside groups with little-to-no donor transparency—and Republicans are getting a huge boost from them," the outlet reported.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Nearly 90% of the money spent on pro-Republican television ads this midterm cycle has been from dark money groups, according to <em>NPR</em>'s analysis of ad data. By comparison, 55% of spending on ads boosting Democrats </span>has come from <b>dark money organizations, which have exploded in number and influence since the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 </b><b><em>Citizens United</em> decision.</b></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Predictably, key battleground states such as Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Arizona have drawn massive ad spending from outside groups in recent months as Senate races there <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/22/gop-arizona-senate-race-00063029" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 13, 101); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">tighten</a> with just over two weeks until the November midterms.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Outside organizations have poured more money into Pennsylvania—where Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is locked in a competitive Senate contest with Republican nominee Dr. Oz—than any other state this cycle.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">"Outside groups have spent nearly $64.9 million to back Fetterman or sway voters away from the celebrity doctor, while conservative outside spenders have poured $66 million into the race," OpenSecrets noted Friday. "<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One of the top outside spenders is the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.). The super PAC has made Fetterman their top target, spending almost $37.2 million to oppose the Democrat</span>."</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">[grfx]</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><em>NPR</em>'s analysis came a month after Senate Republicans <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/22/zero-gop-senators-vote-curb-dark-moneys-stranglehold-democracy" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 13, 101); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">unanimously voted down</a> legislation that would have required dark money organizations to disclose their large donors and funding sources, a step that would shine light on the forces attempting to sway critical races.</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">OpenSecrets <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2022/09/new-dark-money-group-tied-to-former-trump-officials-launches-provocative-ads-ahead-of-2022-midterms/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 13, 101); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">discovered</a> last month that a newly created dark money group that has spent big on ads mocking and attacking progressive candidates in battleground states is "connected to officials in former President Donald Trump's administration who now work with the America First Legal Foundation."</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">"The group, <b style="">Citizens for Sanity,</b> has paid for billboards emblazoned with messages like <b style="">'Protect Pregnant Men from Climate Discrimination' and 'Real progressives support violent criminals in their hour of need'</b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> in states across the country—including Massachusetts, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, California, Michigan, Texas, Illinois, and Georgia," the watchdog noted. </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"The ads have been described as racist and transphobic."</b></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"Federal Communications Commission records reviewed by OpenSecrets reveal that the group's board includes three former Trump administration officials involved in the<b> America First Legal Foundation, a group founded by former Trump White House official Stephen Miller</b>," OpenSecrets added.</span></p></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://heated.world/p/big-oils-first-publicist-advised"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://heated.world/p/big-oils-first-publicist-advised</font></a></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Lee’s real legacy: The American Petroleum Institute</font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Lee’s most controversial legacy may be the advice he gave to the Nazis in the 1930s. But his most lasting legacy is his creation of the oil and gas industry’s first trade group—the American Petroleum Institute—over a decade before, in 1919.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“After the war ended, there was an interest in sort of coordinating an industry position for the petroleum industry to represent their interests to the public,” environmental sociologist Robert Brulle tells Westervelt in Season 3, episode 2 of the podcast. “<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ivy Lee draws on his experience in the war propaganda board effort to start developing larger institutional public relations efforts. <b>And he works with the head of Standard Oil of New Jersey, which we now know as ExxonMobil, to form the American Petroleum Institute in 1919.”</b></span></font></font></font></p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Today, the American Petroleum Institute remains a powerful PR force for fossil fuels in an era of climate emergency. Representing more than 600 corporations, it is the largest U.S. trade group for the oil and gas industry</span>—<b>and its members spend a cumulative billions of dollars a year trying to convincing the public that oil is good, and American, and necessary for progress.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In fact, earlier this month, Ivy Lee’s brainchild API announced <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/08/oil-companies-climate-crisis-pr-spending">a new <b>“seven figure” PR campaign</b> and advertising push</a> to convince the public that the oil and gas industry is a good-faith partner in the fight against climate change.</span> The group’s campaign comes after decades of funding climate science denial and climate policy delay.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The API has deemed the push “Energy for Progress.” <a href="https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/stories/1062019231">According to the group’s president</a>, Mike Sommers, "What it really is all about is going on offense to tell the story of this industry.”</font></font></font></p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Sounds familiar, doesn’t it.</font></p><div><h4 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.625em; line-height: 1.16em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">If you see something, say something</font></h4><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Today, the American Petroleum Institute’s ads run in nearly every respected media outlet. </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The New York Times; the Washington Post</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">; on Vox and Politico and MSNBC. They also run on buildings; on </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">billboards</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">; on public transit and elsewhere.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">HEATED is tracking these ads on an Instagram account called @fossilfuelads, to visually demonstrate how the industry’s deceptive messaging infiltrates our daily lives.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">If you see any fossil fuel ads in your daily life, please send them to <a href="mailto:fossilfuelads@heated.world">fossilfuelads@heated.world</a>....</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div></div></div><div>=
<table id="nytg-superpacs" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td class="nytg-superpac-donors">

<div class="nytg-donor-name">Whiteco Industries, Inc.</div>

Outdoor advertising company.</td><td class="nytg-donor-amount">$1.0 mil.</td></tr></tbody></table>

</div></td><td class="nytg-superpac-large nytg-rep">9</td></tr></tbody></table>

</div></div></div>