Oil-Friendly Bloggers Get MSM-Type Attention

Oil derrickConcerned that the U.S. public "does not understand or appreciate how expensive it is to keep the nation's engines running," the American Petroleum Institute (API), Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell "have reached out to a conservative band of bloggers," reports Reuters. API "paid for seven bloggers" to take two trips in November, one to Houston and Corpus Christi, Texas, and one offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. API required the bloggers to disclose that the industry group had funded the trips, but otherwise "placed no restrictions" on them. API's "new media advisor," Jane Van Ryan, admitted that the bloggers chosen -- for the Texas trip, Ed Morrissey, Bruce McQuain, Brian Westenhaus and the National Association of Manufacturers's Carter Wood -- "have not been particularly critical of the industry." While API's blogger "outreach effort" is new, "reporters who cover the energy industry are often invited by companies to visit offshore drilling rigs or production platforms," notes Reuters. API is currently discussing plans for 2008 junkets.

Comments

Your comments in this article missed one of, if not the only important blogger site "theoildrum" regulars "Gail Tyvberg". Who was one of the API's invitees. http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3278#comments
Her post is straightforward enough, but the comments as usual are what really counts here. Not exactly oil friendly.

Thanks for the pointer; the info I had only named the four bloggers who went on the Texas trip. The other three API invitees, according to [http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3278 The Oil Drum post], are Mark Hemingway of National Review, Margot Gerritsen from Stanford University, and Gail Tverberg of The Oil Drum.

On a related note, the [[National Association of Manufacturers]] seems to get invited to a lot of industry junkets. NAM's Keith Smith is now in France, on a trip sponsored by the [[Nuclear Energy Institute]], according to [http://neinuclearnotes.blogspot.com/2007/11/nam-blogger-at-areva-facility.html NEI's blog] and [http://blog.nam.org/archives/2007/11/from_france_the.php NAM's blog].