Boston Globe Soft Pedals Poland Spring’s Nestle Connection: Can Activists Get Fair Coverage?

A number of Maine activists have complained about the quality of coverage they receive in their local media; charges of bias are common, and many say they’re frustrated by the willingness of newspapers to overlook even the most egregious efforts at spin by Nestle’s spokespeople.

This article in the Boston Globe is a good example; it mistakenly casts Poland Spring as a “quintessentially Maine company” even though the company ceased being that in 1992, when it was bought by Nestle – the world’s largest food and beverage company.

As the company seeks to tap new springs, a number of towns have begun to push back against locating water-extraction sites on their land, forcing this quintessentially Maine company to consider the once unthinkable: looking to other states for its water.

“We’re a Maine company,” said Mark Dubois, Poland Spring’s natural resource director. But if the industry continues to grow, he said, the company is going to need more water.

That a multinational corporation could somehow be cast as a local
company – one with a long history in the area – is simply a triumph of
corporate public relations over reality.

Further, the writer fails to note that the bottled water market’s growth is slowing rapidly. Or even ask the obvious: where exactly is Poland Spring going to go for more water?

Still later in the article, the writer lets this whopper of a quote by Nestle operative Mark Dubois slip through his fingers unopposedd:

He dismissed many of the opponents’ concerns as scare tactics courtesy of national environmental groups.

“I want to know where we have been a bad neighbor,” Dubois said. “It’s interesting that so few people can make so much noise.”

But they are.

Marginalizing opposition groups is normally the job of a corporate PR operative, but the Boston Globe is apparently willing to save Nestle the cost of a PR retainer.

Dubois asks where Nestle has been a bad neighbor. For an answer, the writer need look no further than the tiny town of Fryeburg, which has been sued five times by the multinational, who argued their right to grow market share was more important than the town’s right to say “no.”

Nestle is apparently willing to force a loading station on Fryeburg when the majority of residents have said “no” – not the act of a “quintessentially Maine” company, or a good corporate neighbor.

A careful review of many of the stories involving Nestle/Poland Spring reveals a sad reality; residents opposed to Nestle’s bottling plants and water-mining operations can’t expect much help from their local media.

nestle, nestle waters of north america, poland spring, fryeburg, boston globe

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