Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Chevron in Ecuador

The two videos about the Ecuadorian lawsuit against Chevron clearly illustrate the powerful ability the media has to twist the facts to present different viewpoints.

I felt that the 60 Minutes video had more credibility, but that was only because it was from 60 Minutes. After viewing it for a while I realized that the video was against Chevron. At times the facts seemed be clearly layed out without much bias but then the use of certain phrases showed the bias. For example, the pollution in Ecuador was called a "Toxic Legacy" left by Texaco. I think this was more of a fair article though. The video showed people from both sides of the lawsuit, even though at times portraying the Chevron representative negatively.

The Chevron funded video was blatantly obvious in its bias. Only Chevron employees were featured and PetroEcuador is portrayed as the "bad guy." Although there seemed to be more backstory from this video. I understood more of the details regarding the first lawsuit in NY and why technically Chevron says they are not responsible.

The Murrow Standard is a high one that, I think, is at many times not achieved in the journalistic world.

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