The Farce Continues (via AppVoices)
We've touched on the fact that the new coal industry front group "FACES" has yet to come forward with a list of their members. Well, thanks to a few new media gumshoes, including our own Jamie Goodman and our friends at DeSmogBlog, we've learned that not only is FACES hosted by a K-Street firm called Adfero, but all of the "FACES" of coal are actually just istockphotos. They couldn't even get real photos of their supporters. Astroturf win?
Exhibit A
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Exhibit B
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Exhibit C
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Hmmm, I think I've seen these faces before. (Thanks Jed!)
Please join iLoveMountains.org and consider donating, to help us combat these groups who are perpetuating our dependence on dirty coal and mountaintop removal. We're up against shameless corporate entities who are ready to spend millions defending the status quo in a time when the necessity for change is a life-or-death situation in many Appalachian communities.
Update I: The Adfero site has since been made private. Hopefully someone got a screenshot
Update II: For others who want to blog on this, and I hope you do, there are a few more stock photos ID's at
Update III From the comments. According to parker parrot:
We all love iStock BUT...there are rules about use. This is prohibited:
Use that depicts personal endorsement by model
See here.
They are operating on a fine line here. I think I'll let the owners of the images know and they can decide if the images are being used correctly.
Great catch. iStock images are ubiquitous. But, behind every one of those images is a designer or photographer who is trying to make a living from their creative. The most offensive thing to me is when they're not compensated correctly for their work.
