Open flames shot upward from four smokestacks at the Chevron refinery on the western edge of Richmond, Calif. Soon, black smoke blanketed the sky.

News spread quickly that day last November, but by word of mouth, says Denny Khamphanthong, a 29-year-old Richmond resident. “We don’t know the full story, but we know that you shouldn’t breathe in the air or be outside for that matter,” Khamphanthong says now. “It would be nice to have an actual news outlet that would actually go out there and figure it out themselves.”

The city’s primary local news source, The Richmond Standard, didn’t cover the flare. Nor had it reported on a 2021 Chevron refinery pipeline rupture that dumped nearly 800 gallons of diesel fuel into San Francisco Bay.

Chevron is the city’s largest employer, largest taxpayer and largest polluter. Yet when it comes to writing about Chevron, The Richmond Standard consistently toes the company line.

And there’s a reason for that: Chevron owns The Richmond Standard.

  • Flying Squid
    6•9 months ago

    That would be awesome, but when I’m suggesting it needs a lot more attention, I mean every news service that isn’t owned by Chevron needs to give it some.

    • DigitalTraveler42English
      2•9 months ago

      Agreed, sending it to some of the more hungry and left leaning news orgs would probably be a good start, like The Daily Beast, Mother Jones, The Daily KOS, The Atlantic, Rawstory, and the New Yorker, these outlets like digging into stuff like this.