Under Trump, the media elites treat the executive branch as an evil empire, but under Biden, journalists were so eager to help promote the Democrats that they sometimes offered their sources the ability to edit their articles to their liking.
New documents shared exclusively with MRC Business just exposed the latest example of elitist media hacks violating every modicum of journalistic integrity to genuflect to the Biden administration’s whims and wishes.
Forbes contributor Rhett Buttle and his associate Abdullah Kahn offered to delay a story schmoozing President Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan on his “environmental justice” focus until his team had a chance to address the catastrophic February 3, 2023, train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, according to emails obtained by the Functional Government Initiative.
The incident had led to a controlled explosion and the spewing of hazardous fumes into the atmosphere, with reports of groundwater damage, dead animals and health issues circulating. Both Buttle and Khan attempted to take some of the media pressure off of the Biden administration by postponing publication of the interview until the political heat died down, even though they had been in communication with the EPA about the interview since at least December 2022.
Twenty-four days following the disaster, Khan asked then-EPA deputy press secretary Tim Carroll February 27, “I know we originally planned to have this piece close out Black History Month with some of the excellent content you provided us on environmental justice, and we are set to post tomorrow.” He continued, “However, given what's going on in Ohio at the moment, we wanted to know if your office would potentially like for us to add a question and response about the situation, or would like us to hold the piece until a later date?” Buttle responded some minutes later, “We can do that!”
Why would Forbes leave the option open to pass up an opportunity to grill the Biden EPA on its mishandling of a major ecological disaster if it’s not because they were intentionally acting as the Biden public relations arm? In a January 27, 2023, email, Khan already showed a willingness to hand the editorial reins over to the Biden EPA, before the train disaster even happened:
We've put together a draft list of questions below that we think would be good for the piece. If you have any edits or would like to add additional questions, let us know and we'd be happy to adjust. If you could give us an idea of when you think we'll be able to have responses, that would be greatly appreciated.
This shows that the interview was always intended as a positive, administration-friendly piece on "environmental justice" and Black History Month. DEI at EPA was a good-news story.
Complicating matters further is that we found Buttle on OpenSecrets as a Biden donor, having given $1,000 to his 2020 campaign and indicating a glaring conflict of interest.
Buttle isn't really a journalist first, but runs a PR shop called Public Private Strategies. In 2016, he worked for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign as a liaison to the business sector.
Khan continued, essentially handing editorial direction over to the Biden EPA:
Hi Tim,
This is the question we're thinking of adding to the interview. If it's good with you, please provide your response ASAP:
The EPA has been at work handling the recent trainwreck in East Palestine, Ohio for the past couple weeks. What updates would you share about the response?”
Carroll, assuming the role as Forbes de facto editor, pushed for the piece to be published during Black History Month to give greater focus to the Biden administration’s woke bona fides. “Thanks Abdullah, we'd welcome the opportunity to address the ongoing response to the train derailment in Ohio but would really like this to land during BHM (with apologies again for the delay on our end.)”
Buttle and Khan apparently obliged, as the interview would be published on February 28, the last day of Black History Month, with the promotional headline, “Engagement With The Business Sector And Environmental Justice: A Conversation With U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael S. Regan.”
Nowhere in the puff piece did Forbes editors disclose that Buttle was tagged as one of Biden’s donors. Reading how Buttle teed up Regan’s answers regurgitated by Carroll made his conflict of interest even more damning:
“As we close out Black History Month, I recently had the opportunity to speak with Administrator Regan about his work at EPA, initiatives with the business community and work on environmental justice. I appreciate him taking the time and below is a summary of our conversation.”
A Regan statement that Caroll forwarded to Buttle and Khan was published in its entirety, with no pushback given:
EPA will be with the community of East Palestine every step of the way – we will not leave until the job is done and until they feel at home once again. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, we are committed to delivering justice for all communities facing environmental challenges, from East Palestine, Ohio, to Jackson, Mississippi to McDowell County, West Virginia, and we will continue this work to ensure all people have healthy lands to enjoy, clean air to breath, and safe water to drink.
Buttle and Khan — in the email chain — didn’t bring up reporting at the time that the Biden administration initially denied East Palestine, Ohio disaster relief as a result of the incident. Fox News reported Feb. 16 that Governor Mike DeWine (R-OH) spokesperson Dan Tierney said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) denied federal aid because it “believed the [train derailment] incident didn't qualify as a traditional disaster, such as a tornado or hurricane, for which it usually provides assistance.” Buttle didn’t address this in his propaganda item either. Additional context provided some insight as to why Biden’s FEMA did not initially pursue providing aid for that particular area.
Biden released details on a new executive order advancing racial equity on Feb. 16, the same day as the Fox News report. Biden claimed his goal was to “advance an ambitious, whole-of-government approach to racial equity and support for underserved communities and to continuously embed [racial] equity into all aspects of Federal decision-making.” Could that have included FEMA’s decision-making? According to the demographic breakdown at the time, East Palestine was 93.5 percent white, three percent Hispanic, and only 0.36 percent black.
The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics stipulates that journalists should “Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived. Disclose unavoidable conflicts. Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and avoid political and other outside activities that may compromise integrity or impartiality, or may damage credibility.”
Failure to disclose a contributor’s donations to the Biden administration and offering for the president’s flunkies to guide publication scheduling and content shows that Forbes just willfully trampled all over the aforementioned principles with impunity. Buttle and Khan delivered "special treatment" to Biden’s EPA on a silver platter.
If you’re wondering why Americans' trust for the media is in the toilet, this is just another one of the plethora of examples why.
Forbes did not respond to MRC Business’s request for comment as of the publication of this report.
Read the December 2022- February 2023 email chain between Buttle, Khan and the Biden EPA below.
