EPA returns to bullying tactics against news organizations

Source: Washington Post

EPA returns to bullying tactics against news organizations

By Erik Wemple
Media critic
February 5 at 5:18 PM

In an article last Friday, E&E News took a tour through the swamp. The organization of 75 reporters and editors focusing on energy and the environment zeroed in on possible ethical conflicts facing acting Environmental Protection Agency administrator Andrew Wheeler. The topic is hot, considering that President Trump has nominated Wheeler as the EPA’s permanent director; his nomination just secured the approval of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and is headed to the full Senate for a vote.

“Wheeler’s ex-firm lobbied agency on efforts he oversees,” reads the headline on the Feb. 1 story by reporter Corbin Hiar. The story’s lead sentence lays out the troubles inherited by a government official who once worked as a lobbyist: “A former colleague of acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler repeatedly met with top EPA officials about toxic waste sites and regulations that Wheeler now controls, newly released emails show."

The EPA press office found cause to play media critic: “E&E Publishes Hogwash Misleading Story,” reads the title of a Friday press release. The EPA’s critique complains about two allegedly “misleading” statements in the E&E article, the first having to do with timelines:

Misleading: “Wheeler’s ex-firm lobbied agency on efforts he oversees” and that Acting Administrator Wheeler’s former firm communicated with EPA officials on “two specific (Superfund) sites and one rulemaking — all of which Wheeler hasn’t recused himself from working on.”

Reality: The communication that E&E News cites occurred in July 2017, nearly four months prior to his nomination to become Deputy Administrator and nearly 10 months prior to his confirmation as Deputy Administrator. E&E News incorrectly implies that because Acting Administrator Wheeler is now at EPA, his former firm’s previous attempts to contact the Agency are retroactively prohibited.

In fact, the E&E article did address the timeline, as follows: “Although Wheeler wasn’t included on the email, before joining EPA he acknowledged in a financial disclosure form that he provided ‘strategic advice and consulting’ to General Mills between 2015 and August 2017.”

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/02/05/epa-returns-bullying-tactics-against-news-organizations/