![all fracked up all fracked up](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0248/5433/1447/articles/965dd03ed70101858057a0ec187e58f4_3000x.jpg)
Otherwise the choices you make about how to protect your health may be, well, at least a little fracked up.According to worldwide energy industry participants, all of the low hanging fruit is gone. As the new media/online media search for ways to make a living, make responsible news coverage of health risks a successful business model. Both are great examples of journalism serving the public with aggressive reporting that honestly lets the facts speak for themselves.įind the news providers doing a more honest job with their coverage of risk, and support them. in the Charleston Gazette documents how the state of West Virginia ignored warnings and suggestions for tighter regulations that might have prevented the recent chemical spill that polluted the drinking water of 300,000 people in Kanawha County.
#All fracked up pro
Pro Publica did a solid investigation of water pollution and fracking in 2008. Or we could vote with our clicks and subscription dollars for the news providers that do a more honest job with their risk reporting. We could complain, which might help, a little. We could just tune out of the daily news hype-a-thon, but that would leave us uninformed. It’s up to us to do something about this. And we end up living in a world of too much fear, or false hope, which is unhealthy As a result we are fed more fear than is fair, and more hope than is helpful.
![all fracked up all fracked up](http://www.campaigncc.org/sites/data/files/images/nppf.jpg)
#All fracked up professional
Reporters and photojournalists want our attention too, although not for the profits of their paymasters but for their professional egos. Sometimes risk reporting does just the opposite, and rather than hyping the fear, it overplays and hypes the cure or the answer or the solution, and plays down or leaves out information that moderates what those stories are selling… hope.
![all fracked up all fracked up](https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.cultureunplugged.com/thumbnails_16_9/lg/12286.jpg)
The coverage often emphasizes the scary and controversial aspects of the story and buries, or omits altogether, any information that might moderate the fear or controversy. This is how you and I find out about risks, whether they are environmental, or about health care or medicines or food safety or transportation safety or crime. They got the ‘pollution’ part wrong as well as the ‘fracking’ part. Not Salon Water pollution from fracking confirmed in multiple states. At least they distinguished drilling and fracking. So is it any surprise what happened when prominent news outlets ran the AP story USA Today – Four States Confirm Water Pollution from Drilling confusing ‘complaints’ with ‘pollution’. And, even while acknowledging that the complaints refer to ALL drilling, Begos nonetheless manages to emphasize the connection to fracking, devoting a couple early paragraphs to the drilling technology that’s stirring up controversy, even going so far as to note that while other sorts of drilling may cause pollution, “Experts say the most common type of pollution involves methane, not chemicals from the drilling process.” Oops, there we go again… confusing complaints and pollution. But actually polluted wells? Not many, information that comes much later. Pennsylvania had 897 complaints in TWO years, and only 100 confirmed cases of pollution over FIVE years, but Begos doesn’t tell us how many total complaints there were for those five years.Ĭomplaints? Yes, plenty. Texas had 2000 complaints, and NO confirmed cases of pollution. West Virginia had 190 complaints, and only 4 cases that prompted clean up. 12 paragraphs into the story Begos reports that Ohio had 190 complaints in 5 years, only 6 of which involved actual pollution. Only, if you read on, you discover that while there were lots of complaints, there was hardly any actual pollution (which is what the companies claim is rare). But reporter Kevin Begos says in the lead paragraph that ”…hundreds of complaints have been made about well-water contamination from oil or gas drilling, and pollution was confirmed in a number of them, according to a review that casts doubt on industry suggestions that such problems rarely happen.” Whoa! Lots of water is being contaminated, and drilling companies are lying. The headline on the AP “Big Story” on January 5 read “Some States Confirm Water Pollution From Drilling”.