When copies of an unknown newspaper began appearing in the mailboxes of North Dakota residents in October 2024, sharp-eyed readers noticed something unusual. The Central ND News bore the tagline “Real data. Real value. Real news.” But the paper seemed to have an unreal sense of time.
Instead of covering current news, Central ND News devoted multiple pages to celebrating the oil pipeline company Energy Transfer and the anniversary of the defeat of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests eight years ago. One headline read: “On this day in October 2016: Morton County issues felony arrest warrant for pipeline protestor who charged police officer on horseback,” as if the day a Native American teen on a horse got within twenty feet of armed policemen and was teargassed, tased, and arrested for “instilling fear” was somehow a triumph of justice.
It begged a question: Did an oil pipeline company publish a newspaper? Close enough, said Greenpeace.
The environmental group argued in court that Central ND News was explicitly published to give Energy Transfer, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, the upper hand in their suit against Greenpeace for its role in the protests on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation that attempted to halt the construction of the 1,170-mile pipeline in 2016 and 2017. The judge in the case agreed that the mailer was part of an effort to sway jurors against Greenpeace but denied a motion to delay the trial.
Not only did Greenpeace lose that particular battle, but it also lost the war. Last week, a jury in Mandan, North Dakota, delivered a stunning verdict against Greenpeace, ordering it to pay the astounding sum of over $660 million…
Auteur: Ryan Zickgraf
