July 01, 2009 04:55 PM UTC

Op-Ed "Reporter" Tells One Side of Story

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• by: ClubTwitty

(First time promoting myself–I feel like an American-trained Central American general seizing power in a coup.  Or something. – promoted by ClubTwitty)

In the ‘dog bites man’ category, Gary Harmon–crazed opinion-editorialist and pretend reporter at the Daily Sentinel–has another article on the FRAC Act.

The Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act would require federal monitoring and disclosure of the mostly unknown chemicals that are injected by the truckload into the ground around, among, and outside our ranches, communities and neighborhoods.

Gary’s latest hit-piece dressed up as a newspaper article sits under the screaming headline: Cities, counties oppose legislation on gas fracturing-Bill sponsored by Colorado Dems draws little support in drilling areas

The article lists the predictable opposition of such counties as Mesa, Moffat, Rio Blanco and Delta, along with Club 20 16, the dwindling Voice of the Western Slope since as if it were still 1953.

Harmon’s “article” notes:

Six counties, including Delta, Mesa, Moffat and Rio Blanco counties on the Western Slope, and Morgan and Weld counties in northern Colorado east of the Continental Divide, have adopted resolutions opposing the legislation.

Weld County contains 25 percent of the state’s gas wells and includes the Wattenberg field, the eighth largest in the nation, the Weld County Commission said.

In addition to the counties, the towns of Delta, Naturita, Nucla, Rangely and Grand Junction oppose the bill.

The thing is, Harmon neglected to mention another fact–that at least provides perspective to the point he wants to make in his latest conjured up column “article.”

From NBC11News (Grand Junction, June 15) we learn that:

…while Mesa County is opposing the bill, nine other Colorado governing bodies have passed resolutions supporting it, including the City of Durango, the City of Glenwood Springs, La Plata County, Pitkin County, and San Miguel County.

On one hand you have eleven local jurisdictions (counties/municipalities) opposing the bill; on the other you have nine supporting it.  Harmon writes his whole hit piece discussing the former but fails to even mention the latter.  Many of these counties are on the Western Slope, the area of which the Sentinel claims to be the ‘Paper of Record.’  

What Harmon has done here isn’t journalism.  The Sentinel is diminished each time they look the other way and print such one-sided columns as anything other than opinion.  

But conflict of interest seems par for course among the industry cheerleaders.  Whether its weekly right-wing columnist Harmon pretending to write ‘news’ stories or County Commissioner Craig (“My Bread is Butter with Oil and Gas”) Meis.  

So, I leave you with this, dear readers, on my first day as your new FP Editor–carrying on a proud legacy and mindful of the esteemed colleagues with whom I share this momentous task.  The 11News piece includes this “He didn’t Say That, Did He?” Meis gem:

“Ninety-five percent of it is actually water and sand,” said Meis. “The other five percent that isn’t are household items.”

Supporters don’t buy it.

“If the chemicals they use are safe, why won’t they disclose them?” said Utesch.

The commissioners say it’s because each company creates its own unique frac fluid to gain a competitive edge in the market.

“Why does KFC not identify their special recipe?” said Meis. “It’s a trade secret if you will.”

Would you like that super sized?

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