The New York Times is an indispensible source of trusted information for tens of millions of Americans and even more readers around the globe. Yet the New York Times accepts and regularly runs propagandistic advertisements from the fossil-fuel industry looking to greenwash their responsibility for the destruction of our climate.  

In fact, the Times helped ExxonMobil develop the first "advertorials" - propagandistic ads questioning climate science that ran for decades on its op-ed pages. This practice of collaborative deception continues today: the Times's advertorial wing, TBrandStudio, works directly with fossil-fuel giants like ExxonMobil and Shell to develop complex greenwashing campaigns to run in the Times paper and website.

This undermines the Times's mission to "seek the truth and help people understand the world."

Running these ads offers a jarring disconnect to the work the Times's journalists are doing to honestly report the heat waves, storms, droughts, wildfires, and other deadly chaos caused by the oil, gas, and coal industry's greenhouse pollution. Furthermore, these advertisements are part of a deliberate, decades-long campaign by the industry to subvert our political system and deceive the public about the dangers of their highly profitable product.

The Times claims to not accept ads that are "intentionally misleading" or "deceptive, inaccurate or wrong." It is long-standing Times policy to refuse advertisments on cigarettes because "we don't want to expose our readers to advertising that may be dangerous to their health."

As atmospheric carbon dioxide levels pass 420 parts per million and the CO2-equivalent of all greenhouse pollution passes 450 ppm, now is the time for Times to stop accepting advertisements from the fossil-fuel industry.