Ad pressing Obama on Keystone XL pops up on White House site

WASHINGTON — The oil and gas industry got some prime online real estate for their ad pressing President Barack Obama on the Keystone XL pipeline: The White House’s official website.

Obama held a virtual town hall Thursday about Latino health care enrollment, organized by Spanish-language TV networks.

To give visitors a way to watch, the White House embedded a live stream from the Fusion network on its own website. Fusion’s live stream first shows users an advertisement, known as a “pre-roll.”

Some users tuning in through www.whitehouse.gov were shown an ad from the American Petroleum Institute. The ad urges viewers to tell Obama to approve the pipeline.

API has a major online and TV campaign on Keystone. The groups says it’s just a coincidence the ad aired on the White House site.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS