Lauren Watson of Columbia Journalism Review interviewed Boston University professor Michelle Amazeen about how the media covers the oil industry.
Here is an excerpt:
LW: Amid the war in Iran and Donald Trump’s supportive policies surrounding oil and gas development, what have you noticed about news coverage?
MA: At the beginning of the year, the United States invaded Venezuela and took the Venezuelan president, and the news coverage was talking about oil, because in the end, it was all about oil. Many newsrooms are accepting the industry narrative that we’re going to need fossil fuels and that renewables aren’t reliable—that this is just “the way it’s going to be.” There doesn’t seem to be much pushback. There’s multiple things going on there. There’s the corporate influence, but then there’s also the acquiescence or obedience to the Trump administration. I think there’s real fear of drawing his ire. Everyone sees what he’s done with many of the broadcast stations, and we haven’t even talked about mergers and acquisitions.
Around the same time, there was also coverage of the Supreme Court weighing in on the Chevron case in Louisiana, exploring whether the state could hold Chevron accountable. The Times coverage was quite “legalese,” and they only mentioned Chevron once. It almost seemed like they were protecting Chevron’s image. Whereas when they covered this back in April of 2025, it was much more aggressive, speaking to Chevron’s accountability. The tone was notably different. What happened in between the two articles was that the Times engaged in a native advertising campaign with Chevron. T Brand Studio, the content studio within the Times’ advertising wing, collaborated on a campaign for them, positioning Chevron as “problem solvers” and writing that we need them because there’s so much energy consumption—we need fossil fuels—and they’re innovative. I found that really problematic. There’s a perception that your news coverage is compromised if, on one hand, you’re trying to hold these people to account, yet they’re paying you to create stuff on their behalf.
Read more here.
