Columbia University’s journalism school foisted an award Thursday upon the environmental media outlet thrashing ExxonMobil over its internal research on global warming.
The Ivy league school gave InsideClimateNews its 2016 John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism despite the fact that both Columbia University and InsideClimate’s chief benefactor, the billionaire Rockefeller Family Fund, colluded with several other economists to take down Exxon.
InsideClimate received the reward for publishing a series of article called “Exxon: The Road Not Taken.”
The award carries with it a $5,000 prize, and is typically granted to publications for reporting on environmental issues that impact the world to some degree. The media outlet has received praise from all manner of academic groups, including the panelists determining Pulitzer Prize awards. InsideClimate News made the list in April as one of the media outlets deserving the prize.
The 2016 Pulitzer Prize awards ended up going to news sources such as the Associated Press, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and the Washington Post, were all awarded the prize for various reports on slavery in Southeast Asia, as well as gathering data to show every killing by a police officer in 2015. InsideClimate New came away empty handed.
Environmentalists and representatives with RFF, the group bankrolling InsideClimate News, met at the group’s office building to discuss ways to have legal authorities target Exxon for fraud, among other charges, according to an April 13 report from the Wall Street Journal.
The judges determining the winner were a who’s who of environmentalists and green activists.
Environmentalist Bill McKibben, for instance, was one of the panelists dolling out the prize. McKibben has made a living off launching searing criticisms at fossil fuel companies like Exxon, as well as co-founding virulently anti-fracking groups such as 350.org.
Other finalists for the 2016 John B. Oakes Award included groups such as The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, The Huffington Post, the Investigative Fund, the Food & Environment Reporting Network, and Climate Central for “Pulp Fiction.”
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