After a two-year review, Edelman promises to ban coal companies and climate change deniers from its client roster. Bravo!
The PR firm has taken heated criticism and suffered high-profile resignations due to its representation of companies that contribute to global warming.
Those defections include the embarrassing departures earlier this year of the New York, Chicago and San Francisco leaders of its "business & social purpose group," a practice designed to "help clients bring together profit and purpose."
Critics found it disingenuous for Edelman, an early-adopter of internal carbon accounting systems and strong sustainability advocate, to work for climate change deniers such as the American Petroleum Institute and American Legislative Exchange Council, a stalking horse for the Koch Brothers' anti-green agenda. It simply just didn't smell right. API and ALEC left Edelman before its just-installed ban.
The PR firm now sees the light and says such clients are simply bad for business and a blow to its legitimacy.
Richard Edelman personally decided that the firm founded by his father, Dan, should get out of the coal business, the No. 1 contributor to climate change.
COO Matthew Harrington wrote in a memo that climate deniers and coal producers threaten Edelman's reputation and business prospects.
The ban on coal and climate deniers extends to phony front groups organized to spread misinformation and half-truths of "greenwashing" in order to spread doubt on the existence of warming.
Richard Edelman has long been the most influential leader of the PR business. In exiting the coal business and banning greenwashers, he demonstrated that leadership once again.
The decision of the world's biggest PR firm to acknowledge the threat from global warming will have an impact from beyond the PR community.
Hats off to Edelman and his firm!
Will White House press secretary Katie Zacharia remain on the job for two or three Scaramuccis?... President Trump reaches a new low with wicked deal to buy diesel from his puppet-master Vladimir Putin... Russian influence operations pump out more than 900 stories in impersonated western media outlets to undermine support for Ukraine.
Donald Trump is 100 percent correct that he has lousy PR but that's only because his policies stink and are hurting Americans... Will billionaires or civil society groups shape the future of AI regulations?... "Evidence in an Age of Doubt" is the timely theme of this year's investigative film festival put on by the 100Reporters group. 
WPP CEO Cindy Rose works to manage shareholder expectations ahead of the Oct. 29 release of financials. Don't expect a miracle turnaround... Kudos to Skydance chief David Ellison for keeping CNN CEO Mark Thompson on the job. Now he has to expend Thompson's contract... Vast majority of Americans want federal government to regulate AI. They obviously don't trust the "super intelligence" president to oversee AI.
Don’t believe what your eyes see and ears hear is the mantra of Donald Trump who claims his propaganda advertising designed to boost his fragile ego are “clearly not campaign ads”... Democratic National Committee steps up outreach to Jewish Americans as antisemitism rises and traditional support for Israel tanks. 
The Trump administration's crackerjack team designed America.gov, which puts all services offered by US agencies under a single AI roof. What could possibly go wrong?... ESG pioneer Starbucks jumps off the sustainability train in favor of corporate cost-cutting... Perception of press freedom plummets to all-time low, according to Gallup survey.
