A classic example of mainstream media’s drive-by murder of the truth has happened yet again–at the hands of the Associated Press (hitman: Kevin Begos). The introduction to the most recent hit piece (read it below) is that the AP has done extensive “research” (which is, of course, laughable) into all of these numerous cases of potential water contamination by oil and gas drilling and by golly some of those cases are true–oil and gas drilling polluted some people’s well water. Never mind what kind of pollution, the water was polluted and that’s all you need to know.
Near the end of the article the mountain of evidence is offered–and what do we find? A statistically infinitesimally small number of complaints about well water contamination, very few of which were proven to be true. So the opening paragraphs are a clever deception, but most people don’t bother to read down to the point where the truth is revealed–and some may not even grasp the truth when they do read it. This one story, written by a reporter with an anti-drilling agenda, is reprinted ad nauseum in hundreds of local newspapers across the country that never bother to question its veracity or attempt to verify the facts. Welcome to Propaganda 101…
