Somehow I missed this appalling LA Times "correction" involving "The Blood Diamond" movie when it first came out (the article ran this fall, the "correction" date is unclear), but this sort of intimidation should not go un-noted. The De Beers lawyers tore apart the Los Angeles Times for daring to print an article providing context about the diamond trade in Africa. The paper printed not just this hyper-ventilating apology, it also ran letters from the De Beers’ DC PR hack, and a World Diamond Council propagandist as well.
Some highlights:
"The article referred to De Beers as a cartel that controls the majority
of the world’s diamonds. There are conflicting statistics over the
percentages of diamonds mined and sold by various companies, and a De
Beers spokesman says it does not mine and market the majority of the
world’s diamonds. . ."The article said De Beers was banned from operating in the U.S. for a
decade because of antitrust violations, a reference that erroneously
combined two 1994 legal challenges: The company was never banned but
says its executives chose not to travel to the U.S. after a 1994
indictment charging De Beers and General Electric with industrial
diamond price-fixing. De Beers pleaded guilty in 2004 and was sentenced to pay a $10-million
criminal fine. Also, De Beers was accused of violating antitrust laws
in a group of class-action lawsuits in 1994 that alleged U.S. consumers
overpaid for diamonds; it settled those lawsuits for $250 million in
2005 without admitting liability. . ."The article stated that De Beers is exploring for diamonds on land in
Botswana that was formerly occupied by the Kalahari Bushmen. That claim
is made by Survival International on behalf of the Bushmen, who were
relocated by the Botswanan government, which is partnered with De Beers
in a diamond company called Debswana. A De Beers spokesman says that
while it has explored in the Bushmen’s former homeland in the past, it
has never mined there and "today has no activity of any sort in the
region."
The diamond cartel, um, giant, er, humanitarians also got the New York Times to run a correction saying that the company said it never mined where the Bushmen (San) live.
No wonder the movie ended up with less publicity than expected. The suits at any media outlet are going to want to avoid this kind of challenge.
