Analysis: Liberal Media Lionize Anti-Chevron Lawyer Steve Donziger

Media leftists will not waste an opportunity for one of their disgraced allies to be portrayed as a hero. Even when there’s demonstrable proof they’ve done wrong. Steve Donziger, anti-Chevron activist.

Donziger was convicted of fabricating evidence and engaging in “corrupt” practices to win a legal case against a major oil company. But, Donziger’s supporters are not limited to the media. There are outlets likeThe Hill Democracy Now! Axios Bloomberg News The NationHe was portrayed as an environmental hero who has been manipulated by Big Oil. Bloomberg, in particular, fawned how “videos tagged #freedonziger have been viewed more than 700,000 times on TikTok.” 

A pro-Donziger propaganda piece by Guardian US columnist Erin Brockovich didn’t mince words: “This lawyer should be world-famous for his battle with Chevron – but he’s in jail.”  Rather than treating him for the legal pariah he is, liberal media outlets have done everything but christen Donziger as the martyred Protector of Gaia throughout the legal saga in past months. However, The Wall Street Journal argued, Donziger’s antics amounted to “The Legal Fraud of the Century.”

Donziger’s long history includes a decade-long campaign to attack Chevron oil giant over Ecuadorian pollution. Donziger, who sued Texaco in 1993 (now merged to Chevron), alleged that Chevron had failed to clean up the oil fields in Lago Agrio. This is in the north of Ecuador. Chevron “had signed proof that it had cleaned its portion of the pits and had been absolved of any liability,” according to The Wall Street Journal. 

However, “Mr. Donziger sniffed the potential windfall of a media-ready environmental ‘disaster’ and sued the company for $113 billion,” the paper wrote. He ended up winning the case in Ecuador through “corrupt means,” according to a 485-page court opinion by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in 2014. Kaplan stopped Donziger in enforcing $9.5 billion Ecuadorian sanctions against Chevron.

The Nation attempted to spin the Donziger event as “Chevron’s Prosecution of Steven Donziger.” The leftist magazine tried to conspiratorialize the entire affair: “Documents reveal a close collaboration between the oil giant, its law firm, and the ‘private prosecutor’ who sent the environmentalist lawyer to federal prison.”

The Journal reported that Donziger and his team “fabricated evidence, promised $500,000 to an Ecuadorean judge to rule in their favor, ghostwrote much of the final verdict in the case and took other actions that ‘perverted’ the course of justice.” In 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed Kaplan’s ruling against Donziger, which found that he had “violated the federal Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO),” according to Chevron press release.

Donziger was reported to have been disqualified for his actions and ordered by Chevron to pay $3.4 million. He was then placed under house arrest, before being held in criminal contempt in July 2021. He was held in contempt for violations like refusal “to turn over his electronic devices to a forensic expert of Chevron’s, failure to relinquish his share of the Ecuadorian judgment and failure to turn over his passport when ordered to do so,” reported The Journal. His actions were also reported to have earned him six months imprisonment. 

Donziger received positive coverage by liberal media outlets, which is comparable to a solid public relations campaign. The Nation published a piece in March 2021 headlined, “The Ongoing Persecution of Steven Donziger.” The Hill published a piece touting the opinion of the United Nations: “UN rules that Steven Donziger house arrest violates international laws.” Foreign interference? The Hill even published an interview with Donziger, allowing him to suggest  the federal judge who handed down his contempt ruling — U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska — tried to “punish me as much as she can”:

Democracy Now! went immediately for the heroic angle in the headline for its Oct. 28 story on Donziger’s prison sentence: “Environmental Lawyer Who Took On Chevron Starts Serving 6-Month Prison Sentence for Misdemeanor.” In an interview with Donziger, the outlet characterized him as “the environmental lawyer targeted by Chevron after he successfully sued the oil giant for ecological devastation in the Ecuadorian Amazon.”

Liberal outlet Gizmodo featured Donziger’s vendetta against Chevron as one of its “9 Environmental Crimes that would make great movies,” with Chevron being the antagonist. According to the outlet’s drooling propaganda: “If screenwriters are looking for some easy material, the case of Steven Donziger basically writes itself.” It continued: “[Donziger] won the Ecuadorian court battle in a dramatic fashion: it was the biggest environmental human rights judgment in history.” Bloomberg News portrayed Donziger as a social media icon in an Oct. 1 piece headlined: “TikTok Hero and Chevron Foe Donziger Gets Six Months in Jail.” The outlet lamented that even though Donziger was stripped of his apparently ill-gotten victory in the Ecuadorian case, he “remained a hero to many environmental activists.” Bloomberg continued: “Dozens, including Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, protested his prosecution outside the Manhattan federal courthouse on Friday, and videos tagged #freedonziger have been viewed more than 700,000 times on TikTok.” Talk about currying favor in the court of public opinion. 

Axios wasn’t any worse. The outlet elevated the demands of far-left Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and seven other Congressional Democrats in a Nov. 30 story headlined, “9 Democrats urge DOJ to free lawyer who won lawsuit against Chevron.” After touting the UN Human Rights Council’s allegations that Donziger’s house arrest violated international law, Axios spun Judge Kaplan’s ruling on Donziger’s actions:

U.S. District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan They did not contest the Amazonian pollutionHowever, the court ruled Donziger’s group used fraud evidence and committed criminal conduct. [emphasis added].

Donziger announced on Twitter, February 4, that the ankle bracelet he had worn during his house arrest was removed. continued toAttack Chevron because he is allegedly being targeted by them:

BREAKING! The ankle bracelet was removed and I am now heading home. The black claw represented both the symbolic and real taking of this bracelet. @ChevronMy freedom and tranquility of thought for the past 913 days. Extremely outlandish.

The full release will be available on April 25, I’m thrilled. pic.twitter.com/tlmhQNraT4

— Steven Donziger (@SDonziger) February 4, 2022

Conservatives are being attacked. Get in touch Axios, Democracy Now!, Bloomberg News at letters@bloomberg.net, Gizmodo at (212) 655-9524, The Hill at editor@thehill.comContact The Nation at (212 209-5400) to ask them to stop selling Donziger.