Junk Science, Junk Law, Junk Journalism

We blogged about this case back in 2011 when I wrote;

This is the most incredible story I have come across in memory. It reads like a movie script in part because it has been made into a movie. It's a bit like Silkwood but with a crazy twist. The cast of characters naturally include a big oil company, an environmental scientist, and a lawyer. The twist, and I wish I could save this part for last, is the scientist, her company, and the lawyer, who is an old law school pal of Barack Obama's find themselves as defendants in a RICO case filed by the big oil company. The big oil company is Chevron that acquired Texaco in 2003. Texaco had drilled in Ecuador from 1964 to 1990 when it was taken over by the Ecuadorian government. At that time Texaco agreed to a clean up payment of $40 million. You know people have to be pretty sure of themselves when they allow a documentary film crew to witness their conspiracy but that is exactly what the defendants did. When Chevron got wind of the film, appropriately entitled Crude it sued and won access to the out takes as part of the discovery process.
Appearing in this video are Dr. Ann Maest is a managing scientist at Straus Consulting. She was recently reappointed to the National Academy of Sciences. Maest is in high demand as an expert for those looking to stop oil and mineral exploration. Straus Consulting is a long-term contractor with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and is currently investigating the Deepwater Horizon mishap. The lawyer, Steven Donziger, had hoped to become a billionaire from this single lawsuit now he probably won't be able to probate a pauper's will.

So now we have a corrupt lawyer and a corrupt scientist what else works in the plot? How about a corrupt journalist? In a stellar opinion piece in the Miami Herald Glen Garvin chronicles how Donziger found a corrupt journalist in William Langewiesche of Vanity Fair. Donziger's wife just happened to work for Condé Nast, the magazine's publisher. Langewiesche did produce an article sympathetic to Donziger in what Donziger termed a “the kind of paradigm-shifting, breakthrough article that I think is going to change the entire case from here until it ends in a way that is favorable to us.”
The fact that Langewiesche allowed Donziger to all but co-author the article may have something to do with that. Langewiesche asked Donziger to prepare lists of dozens of questions to be asked of Chevron and asked Donziger to help him prepare arguments about why there’s no need for him to do face-to-face interviews with Chevron officials, as they’ve requested, even though he spent days meeting with Donziger and his legal staff. He even submitted emails to Donziger for approval before sending them to Chevron.
Donziger's ego tripped him up again. When Chevron got wind of the collaboration it subpoenaed the emails between the two. The same actors; lawyers, scientists, and journalists drive the debate on everything from childhood nutrition to global warming and while not all are corrupt the odds get longer by the day. They richly deserve all the criticism they get.