Putting to rest any semblance of journalistic integrity, InsideClimate News (ICN) yesterday used the New York attorney general’s lawsuit against ExxonMobil as an opportunity to send out a fundraising email touting their work attacking the oil and gas company.

ICN has played a central role in perpetuating the unsubstantiated “Exxon Knew” narrative over the past few years – and they seem intent on keeping it going. Taking credit for the NY AG’s lawsuit – which is about accounting practices, not “Exxon Knew” – their fundraising email states:

“The case is a direct result of work we published in 2015, a nine-part series of stories called ‘Exxon: The Road Not Taken.’ Our work was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service that year, and it is what provoked the New York attorney general’s three-year investigation ending in today’s trial.”

It was later found that ICN’s series of stories that kicked off the #ExxonKnew campaign were paid for by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) and Rockefeller Family Fund as a part of a coordinated effort to bring litigation against energy companies. Michael Northrup, director of the Sustainable Development grantmaking program at RBF, “provided the seed grant that got ICN started in 2007,” and RBF remains a “core funder” to this day.

Read the full blog post at EIDClimate.org.