You might have read in Wednesday’s Post about a previously unreleased August 2012 memo describing a dubious marketing campaign from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources that would have targeted public media outlets to promote fracking in state parks and forests.
Equally dubious is that the governor’s office initially denied knowledge of the communication plan to The Columbus Dispatch last Friday, only to backtrack and admit the opposite Tuesday after a leaked email revealed that top aides, including Gov. John Kasich’s chief of staff and communications manager, were involved in the talks with the ODNR.
Although there is no evidence that the plan was ever implemented, the fact that the administration even considered it gives us the creeps.
The memo names environmental advocacy groups such as the Sierra Club and the Ohio Environmental Council as “adversarial opinion leaders” that are “skilled propagandists.” It goes on to outline the department’s objective to “marginalize the effectiveness of communications by adversaries” through op-ed columns, editorial board meetings and letters to the editor in state and local newspapers.
The idea that any government entity, especially the administration, would consider exploiting these public forums to surreptitiously disseminate what we believe is its own brand of propaganda is dishonest, patronizing and disturbingly Nixonian.
Why is the government so afraid of opinions?
Newspapers and environmental groups are mediums through which common citizens can express their concerns and advocate for the causes in which they believe. They are not “adversaries” that public officials should actively work against in order to further their own interests, nor are they tools that the government can abuse to promote a slanted message.
The communication plan revealed in the memo and the administration’s baffling response to it makes us question whether the state values the democratic process at all, and it forces us to wonder what other nefarious ways of distributing (or concealing) information our elected officials and their staffs have considered or carried out.
Chances are, we’d be surprised.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post’s executive editors.
