Suppose the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a study that showed hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking”, caused significant damage to drinking water.
Do you think the networks would cover this story? Given that it would be roughy the 347,953rd feature on how bad fracking is for the environment, I think the answer would probably be yes.
So what happens if the EPA releases a study that showed this does not happen. That would be big news, wouldn\’t it? Wow, the networks would be all over that, wouldn\’t they?
Uh….no.
Excerpted from Matthew Balan\’s article at newsbusters.org:
NPR\’s Morning Edition on Friday actually covered the EPA\’s new report that found that fracking for oil and natural gas “has not caused widespread pollution in drinking water,” as host Renee Montagne put it. The liberal public radio network\’s report came as ABC and NBC maintained their blackout on the study on their morning and evening newscasts.
Montagne led into correspondent Jeff Brady\’s report by spotlighting how the “new report from the Environmental Protection Agency is actually being hailed by the oil and gas industry.” She continued that “it concludes that given how widespread fracking has become, there are relatively few documented problems when it comes to the impact on water resources.”
The one minute, 45-second segment contrasts with the 19-second news brief from Friday\’s CBS This Morning, the first mention of the EPA report on the Big Three networks\’ morning and evening news shows. The transcript of Jeff Brady\’s report from Friday\’s Morning Edition on NPR
Congratulations to National Public Radio…for doing nothing more than reporting a newsworthy story. In this day and age, ridiculous though it may seem, congratulations are more and more in order for journalists acting as what they are supposed to be: journalists.
Shame on CBS for giving this all of 19 seconds. You guys sure had no problem doing full stories when the news on fracking led to a different conclusion, didn\’t you?
And ultimate shame on ABC and NBC for not reporting this information at all, thus keeping every person who relies on you for news completely unaware that such a study even esists, let alone that it was conducted by the government\’s own EPA.
Keep \’em ignorant and you own \’em.
