From the video

The video "Al Gore's Penguin Army," which belittles the threat of global warming (suggesting viewers "stop exhaling") and makes fun of the former vice-president, has a "home-made, humorous quality." Yet the filmmaker's email links him to "DCI Group, a Washington, D.C., public relations and lobbying firm whose clients include oil company Exxon Mobil," reports the Wall Street Journal. Ads promoting the penguin video appeared to people searching for "Al Gore" or "Global Warming" on the Google search engine, but these ads "were removed shortly after The Wall Street Journal contacted DCI." DCI's Tech Central Station website has also "sought to raise doubts about the science of global warming and about Mr. Gore's film." The firm "declines to say whether or not DCI made the anti-Gore penguin video," but an Exxon spokesperson said they "did not fund" and "did not approve it." What is certain is that "political operatives, public relations experts and ad agencies" are increasingly using video-sharing websites like YouTube to shape public opinion. Ogilvy & Mather "plans to post amateur-looking videos on Web sites to spare word-of-mouth buzz about Foster's beer," and AT&T has used YouTube to post videos against net neutrality.

U.S. District Judge Margaret Morrow has thrown out a wrongful dismissal suit brought by Douglas R. Dowie against his former employer, the public relations company Fleishman-Hillard. In court documents, Morrow wrote that "no reasonable jury could conclude that Fleishman-Hillard lacked good cause to terminate" Dowie, who was general manager of the company's Los Angeles office. In late March 2005 Dowie filed a lawsuit claiming that he had been made a scapegoat in the controversy over the overbilling of the Los Angeles Power and Water Department. In April 2005, Fleishman-Hillard agreed to pay $5.7 million to settle a lawsuit brought against it by the city of Los Angeles. Dowie, who was paid an annual salary of $370,000, was seeking lost wages and other damages.