New Research on Fossil Fuel Sponsored Content and Media Misleading Practices

New Research on Fossil Fuel Sponsored Content and Media Misleading Practices

Author: Pushkin Industries March 21, 2025 Duration: 19:16

The fossil fuel industry has long shaped public perception through advertorials and sponsored content created by the media outlets themselves. These op-eds, slide shows and videos, and podcasts are produced by media outlets' internal brand studios, not their editorial staffs. But these services are explicitly marketed as a way to make corporate content mirror the editorial content in style and approach, and when it comes to fossil fuel advertisers it often directly contradicts what the editorial staff is reporting. In late 2023, we published a report detailing the many examples of this and delving into the peer-reviewed research that shows how misleading this practice is to readers. One of the researchers who has most contributed to this body of research is Boston University's Dr. Michelle Amazeen, who has published a new study looking at why this practice is particularly misleading on social media, and what media outlets might be able to do to make it less so.

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.


There’s a story behind the stalled progress on climate change that goes beyond melting ice and rising seas-it’s a story of deliberate deception. Drilled, from Pushkin Industries, approaches the climate crisis through the lens of investigative true crime. Led by veteran reporter Amy Westervelt and a team of award-winning climate journalists, this podcast meticulously traces how networks of corporate interests and political operatives constructed a decades-long campaign of denial and delay. Each season is a deep forensic examination, pulling on threads of new evidence to unravel systems of disinformation and hidden power. What you’ll hear isn’t just a recap of scientific reports, but a gripping narrative that follows the paper trail, the leaked memos, and the orchestrated efforts that have held meaningful action just out of reach. The result is a compelling and often unsettling listen that reframes our understanding of the past half-century. By treating climate inaction as a crime story, this podcast reveals the human architects and the calculated strategies that brought us here, making complex collusion startlingly clear. Tune in for a masterclass in accountability journalism.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Drilled
Podcast Episodes
On Petromasculinity and Protest [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 21:18
Repression of protest has ramped up in the U.S., but everything that's happening now began with the backlash to the Standing Rock protest back in 2016. In today's episode we look at the connections between fossil fascism…
Never Let a War Go to Waste [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:58
Lots of people are talking about the similarities between Iraq and Iran, but in this episode we place the two in the context of another war—World War I—and the historical arc of fossil fascism.See omnystudio.com/listener…
How Climate Protest Backlash Led to Present-Day Repression [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:00
It's easy to feel like climate "doesn't matter" as the United States descends into fascism, as if climate and democracy are somehow separate issues. Researcher Oscar Berglund and Amy Westervelt connect the dots between t…
A "Green Transition"? If Only It Were That Simple [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:00
In More and More and More, Jean-Baptiste Fressoz shows that the human history of energy is one of accumulation, not substitution. Here, he talks to reporter Adam Lowenstein about how the "energy transition" frame got so…
Drilling Deep: John Vaillant on Climate Change and Wildfire [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:22
Wildfires are becoming more intense, frequent, and destructive as the climate heats up. Drilled reporter Royce Kurmelovs and Canadian author John Vallaint, author of Fire Weather, discuss the climate-fire nexus. See omny…
The Norwegian Paradox: Norway's Fossil Fuel Dilemma [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:54
In this bonus episode of The Black Thread, we examine a single legal case that distilles the Norwegian paradox perfectly: the planned electrification of the Melkøya gas processing plant. It's a key conflict site where No…