Category: Fracking research

The AP's Kevin Begos has on the wire today a discouraging report on the near-absence of reliable research into hazards from hydraulic fracturing for gas recovery. Not even industry is doing very much if any such research and, his story assures readers, few outside the business itself would trust an industry report anyway.

   In the third paragraph is a quote from a woman who lives near a Pennsylvania drilling area. He quotes her to say, "There's a lot of people in my neighborhood that have rashes and little red spots."

   One is tempted to blast the piece for prominently using such testimony. The expertise of its source is ignored. But its placement so high in the story puts a tilt on the account. It immediately encourages readers to imagine the terrible complexions to be...