BP Hires Dick Cheney's Former Campaign Press Secretary

Submitted by Anne Landman on

Former Vice President Dick CheneyBP, now officially responsible for the worst oil spill disaster in U.S. history, has hired former Vice President Dick Cheney's campaign press secretary, Anne Womack-Kolton, to head its American public relations efforts. Womack is a former employee of the PR firm APCO Worldwide, perhaps best known for its work on behalf of the tobacco industry. In 1995, Philip Morris hired APCO to orchestrate a massive national "tort reform" movement, and in 1993, PM hired APCO to organize the front group The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition to attack the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after it rated secondhand smoke a Group A Human Carcinogen, the same rating the agency gives asbestos and radon gas. Womack also served as a White House spokesperson, defending Bush's White House Office Of Faith-Based Initiatives. In announcing Womack-Kolton's hiring, BP only mentioned that she had been director of public affairs for the Department of Energy (DOE) under George W. Bush, but a DOE press release boasts about her links to Cheney.

Main Source: 
Talking Points Memo, June 1, 2010
Topics: 
Corporate Campaigns
Energy
Environment
Public Relations

Comments

Anonymous replied on

That's funny that they would hire Dick Cheney. Must have been the idea of the "Elites" to take the heat off their new puppet "Obama" by reminding people how bad their last puppet was "Bush and Chaney". LOL! They are all crooks working for the same Puppet masters. This oil spill is was nothing but an orchestrated scam to jump start the floundering environmental movement. Make me laugh. People are so gullible.

Dennis T replied on

So whenever there is an environmental as well as a health disaster you can count on APCO? Kinda figures that BP recruits someone who was able to defend a controversial figure like Cheney. Man, they must be desperate...which of course is bad news, the hole will probably keep leaking for several more weeks to come.

Lee Ferrara replied on

Is BP that stupid? Talk about creating an even bigger PR nightmare! Even if they are 'good', people will hate BP even more. I don't get that.

Steve Harold replied on

My memory might be playing tricks here but wasn't there a connection between Haliburton (the rigs owner) and Cheney when he was in office?

Peter L. replied on

With its stock spiralling, BP hired her away from the Brunswick Group, the international communications and crisis management firm which BP has been paying to “craft its public response to the spill.” Womack-Kolton joined the Brunswick Group in 2007 to manage “high stakes communications surrounding public affairs issues and political risk management for domestic and global corporate clients.
Peter - Schools for Public Health