(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Hiring For Disinfo: Job Postings As Opposition Research Opportunities [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-30 It's been a couple years since we found out about the Koch network's staffing NGO, Talent Market , so we thought we'd take a look at what the job market is like for people whose skillset is primarily being willing to say things that are wrong on purpose for conservative propaganda. Turns out, there is a wealth of interesting information contained in job postings! For example, John Stossel , former journalist turned Koch-brand disinfo distributor, is hiring a production assistant who "must have a clear understanding of John Stossel’s perspective" as well as a curriculum writer for Stossel in the Classroom who "will develop curriculum and quizzes to be used with Stossel in the Classroom videos, tailored for middle and high school classes." Inspired, we went looking at what other positions climate disinformation-producing groups are listing, and found some fun stuff! For example, the CO2 Coalition , which has gotten funding from sources that may or may not be fossil fuel interests , is looking for someone to edit videos and produce podcasts . Apparently, getting expelled from a science teachers' conference for handing out disinfo comics didn't dampen their fundraising. Over at the Heritage Foundation 's careers page , there are fourteen positions listed, including a post for a data journalist who will be "responsible for highlighting public policy problems and directing target audiences toward Heritage’s policy recommendations through written articles, graphics, other visuals, and media platforms." There's also a position open for a senior communications manager for Heritage's Economic and Energy Policy programs, whose responsibilities will include "generating pitches daily on relevant issues on multiple platforms including print, broadcast, and digital." Our favorite find, though, was at the Heartland Institute , which doesn’t have any new full-time career opportunities , aside from a "media specialist" position that has apparently been on the website since November 2022. There is, however, a fun page just for potential volunteers . After the free market-loving organization introduces the concept of working for them for free as a charity (dangling the potential opportunity for eventual compensation along the lines of $150 for a 20-hour work week), they list "five areas of activities where you might pitch in." The first is to help Heartland's librarian sort through what sounds like an absolute mess left by its former head Joe Bast , as "all the books in the library need to be checked against the digital catalogue to make sure the catalogue correctly identifies their topic." Why? Because "when Joe Bast sorted the books in the library, he decided to move many of them into categories different from what was originally put into the catalogue. 'Fixing' this could require two or three months of part-time work." Heartland wants you to think they know better than all the scientists who say fossil fuels cause climate change and cigarettes cause cancer, but apparently they can't even keep their own library organized! Ditto for their website. Apparently when they relaunched all the way back in 2016, it resulted in "thousands of broken links, formatting problems, and documents that need to be redesigned." Whoops! And, finally, there’s our absolute favorite. Heartland’s looking for "people with good research and writing skills to write letters to the editor and op-eds, blog posts, or participate in bigger research projects." Why does Heartland need to look externally to find good researchers and writers? Clearly they don't have any in-house, but they also have another very specific motivator. Heartland’s webpage states, "One big job is defending our reputation on the Internet: Internet 'trolls' watch us closely and post inaccurate and libelous claims in the comments fields of articles we get placed on line. All we need is someone to post a couple sentences saying 'that’s untrue!' and linking to the ' Reply to our critics ' message on our website to make sure lies and misinformation do not go unanswered." Given that we've yet to ever receive any such reply, it seems that Heartland may not be having much success recruiting volunteers to do grueling, low-paying work for the benefit of the fossil fuel industry. Seriously, though, all these job postings serve as a reminder that the climate disinformation machine is constantly moving forward, roping in new recruits every day. Organizations committed to climate justice better be racing to keep up! 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