Contaminated Inquiry: Prof with Money Ties to Industry Led Fracking Study

Friday, July 27, 2012 by Common Dreams

Report: UTexas Study Spun the Facts and Misled the Public

 

A recent University of Texas study, which claims to prove that the natural gas extraction process known as fracking does not cause environmental damage or water contamination, was led by a gas industry insider who currently holds up to $1.6 million in stock at a large fracking company. The information was revealed in a new exposé released by the Public Accountability Initiative (PAI).

 Logo from PAI study: Contaminated Inquiry: How a University of Texas Fracking Study Led by a Gas Industry Insider Spun the Facts and Misled the Public The 400-page pro-fracking review in question was led by author Charles Groat of the University of Texas. Neither Groat nor the University openly reported that Groat himself is on the board of a fracking company, Plains Exploration and Production Company.

As a board member, Groat receives 10,000 shares of restricted stock a year. His holdings as of July 19th were worth $1.6 million. He also receives an annual fee, which was $58,500 in 2011, according to filings.

Groat did not reveal his position with the company when the report was released and told reporters that the university had turned down all industry funds for the study.

Groat's report, Fact-based Regulation for Environmental Protection in Shale Gas Development, said that it separated "fact from fiction" and gave policy makers a way forward in a major natural gas boom. The study was reported widely by major news outlets.

On the contrary, the PAI maintains that Groat's study contains unfounded facts and misinformation, misleading selective language, and includes inaccurate claims of peer review.

Groat's research covered fracking operations in Texas, Louisiana, and the Marcellus Shale area. His company, Plains Exploration, is currently fracking in shale formations in Texas.

Following the PAI exposé, titled Contaminated Inquiry: How a University of Texas Fracking Study Led by a Gas Industry Insider Spun the Facts and Misled the Public, the university says it will assemble a group of independent experts to review the integrity of Groat's study.

PAI's exposé is the second in a series of studies revealing rampant and widespread industry ties to pro-fracking reports.

Media Madness

Chronic Biases
by RALPH NADER

March Madness comes once a year. Media Madness is year-round. What the mass media choose to cover and feature try to turn the priorities of any sane society upside down.

People of vice, war, money, spectator sports and business receive media attention – oftentimes ad nausem. People of virtue, peace, civics, health, labor and community engagement have to beg for media attention. Which of these two groups represents the most basic values of a civilized society that would restrain the excesses of the other group? You can guess!

There are many reasons for this chronic bias, beyond the power of commercial advertisers. The media believe that wrongdoing and greed and violence get readers and ratings while their opposites are dull soup.

But aren’t these opposites vital to the survival and well-being of a just society? Aren’t people who wage peace to prevent war, or demand health/safety over sickness/injury, more newsworthy when they expose people or companies that cause danger, damage and deaths?

Big-Time Greed is headline material, while Big-Time Thrift (e.g. efficiency for consumers) is boring, even when it concentrates on exposing Big-Time Greed. Aetna, Pfizer and avaricious middlemen are sometimes in the news when they exhibit gouging practices. But have you ever heard of Harvard researcher/lecturer Malcolm Sparrow, who for years has shown that at least ten percent of your healthcare spending goes down the drain due to preventable, computerized billing fraud and abuse? That amounts to $270 billion this year alone!

When news editors are asked why the media overwhelmingly cover the utterances of warmongers like William Kristol (The Weekly Standard) but ignore peace-advocates like Coleman McCarthy (The Nation and Progressive Magazine), they respond that Kristol has more influence.

But who gave Kristol influence? Why, the media who quote and interview him incessantly. Coleman McCarthy, a formerly syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, works to have colleges and high schools around the country adopt peace studies. He could give a lively interview on Meet the Press or This Week on the superiority of waging peace over waging war in advancing national security in countries around the world.

The New York Times reports the crazed outbursts of bigots such as Ann Coulter and Pam Geller, even devoting entire pages, with numerous photographs, to both of them in one October 2010 Sunday edition. Yet the great labor advocate, writer and pamphleteer, Harry Kelber, has been on top of the most important worker-management issues of our time for a mere 75 years and remains unknown to New York Times readers, even though he resides in New York City, just like the Times.

These contrasts were at work at our Control the Corporation conference –held in Washington, DC earlier this month. The all-day event consisted of several panels on timely and important topics. The panelists discussed: how to counter the impact of corporate control of the electoral process, how to hold corporations accountable for their crimes, how to protect the “commons” from the insatiable advocates of privatization, what are future actions of the Occupy movement, how to create economic models and initiatives for creating jobs and raising the minimum wage, and what are the strategies to employ for mobilizing sustained action toward a more just democratic society.

The presenters were among the most experienced and articulate activists in the country regarding these important areas of American concerns. The media were informed in advance, yet no major news reporters, feature writers or columnists showed up.

Among the many leaders in fields of corporate injustice who spoke at the conference were: Harvey Wasserman, Rob Richie, Patrick Burns, Robert Weissman, Phineas Baxandall, David Morris, Wenonah Hauter, Jamie Love, Margaret Flowers, Greg LeRoy, Gayle McLaughlin, Michael Gecan, Russell Mokhiber, Chris Hedges and David Freeman.

Ever hear of them? Do you know how much better, safer, economically-secure, freer and more influential your lives would be were these and other civic leaders given print and airtime like the scoundrels and distracters that daily fill the screens and pages of newspapers, television and radio?

Well, visit the Center for Study of Responsive Law’s website for the concise biographies of the presenters and start following the great works of those who interest you.

Should you be interested in results beyond our borders, look up Jamie Love, the economist whose tireless global travels to less-developed countries exposed the prohibitive prices of AIDS drugs ($10,000 per person per year) and led to his persuading Cipla, a drug company in India, to make and sell these drugs for $300 per person per year for AIDS patients in South Africa. More than any single person, his incisive advocacy and action coalitions broke the grip of the politically connected Big Pharma and overcame its determination that obscene profits on AIDS drugs must trump human lives.

A philosopher once said that we honor those we reward. Whom do we reward? Whom do we note? Business, sports and entertainment figures. The names of people advancing the great values of a society, like health, safety, clean elections – are largely unknown. The media like to trivialize, tantalize and entertain, but they rarely acknowledge those advancing solutions to our society’s most pressing problems. It is well beyond the time for the mass media to redefine what is important and get serious about very critical matters for this and future generations.

Former Fox News senior reporter says network wants to keep media polarized

Former Fox News senior reporter says network wants to keep media polarized
By David Edwards Monday, October 25th, 2010

Fox News wants to maintain an ideological divide within the media for marketing reasons, says a senior reporter that recently left the network.

Appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe Monday, Major Garrett explained that his former employer has a vested interest in making sure the media is as polarized as possible.

NPR fired longtime analyst Juan Williams last week after he expressed fear of Muslims in airports.

"Look, Bill, I'm not a bigot," Williams told Fox News' Bill O'Reilly. "You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."

"NPR was increasingly unhappy with him," Garrett told MSNBC's Joe Scarborough Monday.

"[NPR] was getting blowback from listeners about seeing Juan so often on Fox. That speaks to a problem that neither Fox nor NPR can solve -- they don't want to solve, which is the polarization of American media," Garrett said.

"For a certain amount of marketing points of view, Fox wants to keep that polarization saying, 'Look, we are different. We're dramatically different. You can see how we are different. If you like that difference, you better come over here and you better stay here.'"

"That is an embedded part of the marketing that surrounds what happens in the news division at Fox," he said.

Time's Mark Halperin pointed out that Williams isn't always treated as an equal at Fox News.

"Juan Williams' place on Fox gives them kind of a fig leaf credibility to say, 'We bring on divergent voices,'" said Halperin.

"There aren't very many and frankly, you know, when I watch him on, he's not always treated with that much respect."

"And he's frequently outnumbered," added Garrett.

"Let me ask you what is going on within Fox?" wondered Halperin. "How much would they be actively strategizing about taking advantage of this for publicity, for energizing their viewers?"

"I don't think it is any coincidence the day it happened, he got a huge contract at Fox and Fox planted a flag in the ground saying, 'He is ours, he is going to stay ours and if you are outraged, this is where you need to be,'" answered Garrett.

"That is an embedded part of [Fox News CEO] Roger Ailes' DNA."

Williams accepted a $2 million contract from Fox News less than 24 hours after being fired from NPR.

"Roger had to love that day," said Scarborough. "He has to absolutely love the fact that another liberal media outlet blundered their way right into his hands."

"You said it, Joe," replied Garrett.

This video is from MSNBC's Morning Joe, broadcast Oct. 25, 2010.

The Media Does Not Want You Informed

Not like it's breaking news, but it certainly confirms the attempt corporate media makes to misinform, distract, and deceptively convince people to embrace a cause (like say, the war).