Kenney government’s energy ‘war room’ chief apologizes for tweets attacking New York Times

The head of Alberta’s $30-million-a-year energy war room is apologizing after the organization posted a lengthy social media response to an article in The New York Times that questioned the news organization’s credibility.

The Canadian Energy Centre’s Twitter account said The Times has been “called out for anti-Semitism countless times,” has a “dodgy” track record, is “routinely accused of bias” and is “not the most dependable source.”

Four of the tweets were then deleted from a 20-tweet thread posted in response to a Times article on international lenders that have stopped financing oil sands projects in Alberta.

READ MORE: Alberta opposition says $30M energy war room a parade of errors, should be shut down

The remaining tweets take issue with the news agency’s interpretation of the data, and defend the environmental record of Canada and the oil and gas sector, but don’t directly attack the newspaper’s credibility.

The centre was promised by Premier Jason Kenney in the provincial election last year with a mandate to promote the energy industry and fire back in real time against what the United Conservative government deems to be misinformation.

READ MORE: UCP says Alberta’s energy war room’s ‘internal operations’ not subject to freedom of information laws

Tom Olsen, who heads the energy centre, apologized via his personal Twitter account for the offending tweets and said the issue has been dealt with internally.

“I apologize for some of the tweets in (The Canadian Energy Centre) Twitter thread this a.m.,” he wrote. “The tone did not meet CEC’s standard for public discourse.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I apologize for some of the tweets in (The Canadian Energy Centre) Twitter thread this a.m.," he wrote. "The tone did not meet CEC's standard for public discourse."

Olsen added that “there will be a substantive response” to the article within the centre’s “mandate of challenging inaccuracies.”

The centre did not immediately respond Wednesday afternoon to email and phone requests for comment. The Times did not immediately respond to a comment request.

READ MORE: Journalist group protests Alberta war room’s use of term reporters

The centre has been criticized previously for using another organization’s trademarked logo and for having its staff members refer to themselves as reporters instead of government employees.

READ MORE: Parody website launched after Alberta’s energy war room runs into logo issues

Olsen has been mocked by critics for a slip of the tongue in a TV interview in which he said the purpose of the centre is about “disproving true facts.”

The Calgary-based centre has been set up as a provincial government corporation, but is overseen by three cabinet ministers on its board of directors.

Watch below: Some Global News videos about the Canadian Energy Centre, also known as Premier Jason Kenney’s energy war room. 

1:35 Alberta’s energy ‘war room’ under fire from NDP

• Alberta’s energy ‘war room’ under fire from NDP
• Canadian Energy Centre faces controversy over its logo
• An inside look at Alberta’s ‘war room’
• Extended: Sitting down with the CEO of Alberta’s ‘war room’
• Alberta government launches energy ‘war room’
• Province’s new war room to promote Alberta’s oil, gas industries
• UCP officially launches war room as Canadian Energy Centre

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