“Pink Slime Journalism” Takes Aim at Greenpeace
The Dakota Access Pipeline company just won a landmark suit against Greenpeace worth over $660 million. At the heart of the case is a new and particularly sleazy form of partisan communications masquerading as journalism.
Protesters hold a rally with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in support of a lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers and plans for the Dakota Access Pipeline outside the US District Court in Washington, DC, August 24, 2016. (Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images)
When copies of an unknown newspaper began appearing in the mailboxes of North Dakota residents in October 2024, sharp-eyed readers noticed something unusual. The Central ND News bore the tagline “Real data. Real value. Real news.” But the paper seemed to have an unreal sense of time.
Instead of covering current news, Central ND News devoted multiple pages to celebrating the oil pipeline company Energy Transfer and the anniversary of the defeat of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests eight years ago. One headline read: “On this day in October 2016: Morton County issues felony arrest warrant for pipeline protestor who charged police officer on horseback,” as if the day a Native American teen on a horse got within twenty feet of armed policemen and was teargassed, tased, and arrested for “instilling fear” was somehow a triumph of justice.
It begged a question: Did an oil pipeline company publish a newspaper? Close enough, said Greenpeace.
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