If you watch TV news you’re bound to see a lot of commercials for oil companies. As Miranda Spencer reported in Extra! (2/12), there are far more commercials about energy companies and natural gas than there are actual news reports about controversial industry practices like hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”
But then there are the news segments that might as well be commercials. Last night’s ABC World News broadcast (5/10/12) featured a report on the oil boom in the Midwest that looked more like an ad than anything else.
“A rising number of Americans are finding a windfall right where they live,” explained anchor Diane Sawyer. She added that “new drilling techniques are finding oil in your backyard”–residents of a small town in Kansas are suddenly wealthy thanks to this “pot of gold.”
Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi explained that oil companies were signing expensive leases with local farmers, who believe they could become quite wealthy if the drilling works: $500,000 a month in royalty payments, says one guest–a figure Alfonsi repeats with some astonishment.
Could that possibly be true? Who knows–no one actually receiving this kind of windfall is interviewed in the segment. ABC seems most interested in assuring us that people could become “millionaires overnight.”
Alfonsi explains that “a new drilling technique that finds oil on lands once thought to be sucked dry.” That’s all the explanation you get on the television broadcast. The Web version of the story, though, explains a bit more:
From Pennsylvania and North Dakota to Texas, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing are quickly turning the U.S. into an oil superpower. By some estimates, 2 trillion barrels of oil are waiting to be drilled–nearly twice the reserves in the Middle East and North Africa.
The newer techniques can produce as much as 10 times more oil than a traditional well. Horizontal drilling works by digging 5,000 feet into the earth, then a mile across in several directions.
Using hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking,” crews then blast sand, water and chemicals into the rock to draw out even more oil and gas.
Why would ABC neglect to mention fracking by name on the broadcast? Perhaps because plenty of people are aware of the controversies surrounding this practice–the heavy use of dangerous chemicals and the threat to local water supplies, to name just two.
But ABC can’t be bothered with any criticisms at all. The point of the segment was that that this “could transform the Midwest into the new Mideast.”
At the end of the segment, Alfonsi declared that there could be “2 trillion barrels of oil in our backyards.” Anchor Sawyer could hardly contain her excitement: “I hope it’s in your backyard!”
Never mind the hazards of fracking–think for a second about the devastating effect this would have on the global climate, which does not even merit a mention.
ABC isn’t the first network newscast to give a big thumbs up to the “new drilling technologies” that will make us all millionaires. But this was easily one of the most propagandistic news segments I’ve ever seen.
Meanwhile, Sawyer makes her millions in the time-honored tradition …
Selling her soul, and every single iota of her integrity.
That’s where the big money is in corpress “journalism”.
No news here.
Literally.
Yep, we saw that very weird segment on ABC news–should that have been labelled as a paid advertisement? Was it an “Onion” article that said that most Public Relations graduates are going to the natural gas industry? My wife wondered why all the farmers in the video were so fat and ready for a heart attack. These riches will be going to the corporate farmer republicans and not to suburbia or city folk. Of course, the country folk will wonder why their water tastes funny…just have to drink more alcohol. Will anyone ask, what is the current level of CO2 and how does that compare to the historical record?
And all this comes just after a superb posting by Bill Blakemore on global warming.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/05/hug-the-monster-for-realistic-hope-in-global-warming-or-how-to-transform-your-fearful-inner-climate/
This was one of the most incisive and responsible reports to ever come out of mainstream media. Pity it was not a television piece.
NPR ,this week, had a defacto commercial on “All Things Considered fro Natural as drilling. No mention of fracking or its ensuing controversies.
Thanks for the update. Ditto here in Canada – smarmy ads posing as documentaries telling us how much the oil companies love grass and trees and animals. Scary stuff. Sort of like saying “God is love” as he roasts you in Hell.
All the typical corporate come-on hyperbole/innuendo (‘…if the drilling works: $500,000 a month in royalty payments…”, & “…some estimates, 2 trillion barrels of oil are waiting to be drilled, nearly twice the reserves in the Middle East and North Africa.” & “newer techniques can produce as much as 10 times more oil than a traditional well”, etc) designed to imply much without legally promising anything, just so they can get their foot in the door. And from what I’ve read about oil exploration, the geologists quickly admit that their estimates have a WIDE range of variation because there are a few big variables in all of it and it’s hidden thousands of feet underground. Then filter that through some corporate VP of public relations (who’s just thinking about 1 or 2 fiscal quarters into the future), and voila, you’ve got “2 trillion barrels of oil” under your country, when it may well be 1/20th, 1/30th, or even 1/50th of that figure – – – nobody has a good handle on it. All we really KNOW for sure is that they’ll pump a witches brew of chemicals (that they won’t voluntarily name) into the ground to get at it….
C’mon, we all know people can become rich when oil is found in their backyards! Haven’t you ever seen “The Beverly Hillbillies”? If Jed Clampett could become a millionaire, anybody could! It was on the teevee so you know it’s true.
Wow, Diane Sawyer, go for the human angle. Really, I mean go for it, and not those maybe, possibly, future millionaires…go for the average citizen of say…North Dakota!
Wow, those people in the western part of the state getting a WINDFALL of…..pee in plastic bottles! Well, those truckers have to go somewhere, and I guess, and a trucker can only carry so many bottles of piss, before insanity takes over and they just throw them out the window and drive on. Yeah… a real mess ..for those citizens” left behind.”
Of course, in little towns like Williston, the citizens who have lived there all of their lives are being driven out by the high costs of renting to those oil people that stay in town. A lot of rapes all of a sudden too, although, I guess with so many career lap dancers, coming to town too that stuff will happen. Do people really want to be millionaires if the trade off is that they can’t let their daughters outside and their grand parents have to move away, and towns people keep tripping on bottles of trucker piss?
I lived in North Dakota for 4 years, and the people were wonderful, and the weather was crazy, although the people used to say that the cold weather, “Kept the riff raff out…” …..not anymore!
There’s your story, Diane Sawyer. Maybe Mike Nichols could make a great story about this…what happens when a state full of Scarlett O’Haras loses TARA.
There are some advantages of being old and, ohmygod, remembering some history. In the 40s I had neighbors who were sure oil would make them rich. Of course, you had to find it and the carpetbaggers were at their door. And, yes, there were some pockets of oil in our area, however, my neighbors didn’t see any of it. They blamed the guy who dug the well. Then there was my ex’s family who owned “oil land in Texas.” I heard a lot about that for several years – almost 30 in fact. Then one day the oil “came in.” Their take: enough for each of three brothers to buy lunch once a month – or maybe not. I haven’t kept up and they’re still waiting for the $500K a month.
If we decide to boycott all the crap the TV tells us we need, we can stop going to the Frek*** Mall, stop using fuel to get there, buy local foods, and help one another, and finally turn off the Main stream TV infomercials like Sawyer. We may be able to change the world. Occupy the streets we built, and the courts, and the town halls once a month we can effect that change. ALL POLITICS are LOCAL. Ask for opinions and ask how your locals voted on the issues, you will be very surprised.
Problems with this “news” segment beyond those already mentioned are that reputable estimates of actual reserves are an order of magnitude less than reported, and actual recoverable barrels are an order of magnitude less than that. Then there are the problems with Energy Returned on Energy Invested as well as the profitability of some of these energy plays until oil hits about $200/barrel, at which point we have to start questioning who’s going to be able to afford it anyway.
And we wonder why the consensus trance has such a firm grip on the American public.
Why would any place in the Midwest want to be the next Middle East? That’s an arid, largely lifeless desert except for what petroleum wealth built. That’ll be desert again, too, when the oil and money dry up.
This Diane Sawyer segment is an embarrassment to an already thoroughly discredited and besmirched profession, TV News. There’s hardly an assertion in it that’s not distorted or outright false. What they must be talking about is shale oil, which in fact is difficult and expensive to extract, and theoretically there may be quite of bit of the stuff underground, only a small percentage can be practically extracted. And that ignores the vast capacity for environmental damage, not least from the necessary production of highly toxic fracking backflow fluid, millions of gallons per frack. How a supposed journalist could crow about the windfall without mentioning the environmental consequences at this late stage speaks to a network that’s either incredibly stupid or so desperate for better ratings it will do anything. I have to think it’s the latter.
They should of done commercials FOR oil companies long ago.Gas and oil companies have been taking it on the chin for years now .Directed and produced by the left.Did you think that would actually go on and on with out any response?As if you have a free field to float whatever evidence you have for your viewpoint without a response?This is how it was before FOX.Sorry guys they are answering back.Getting in the game to defend their positions.Thats ok right?How about that town in Texas the EPA had all those commercials on.Look what fracking did(as they light the kitchen sinks water on fire).Then we find it was all a lie.EPA found no fracking damage at all.The fire occurred was because they connected their gas line to their water hose.You dont even want to know how many millions that little fraud cost the energy companies.So maybe the commercial stunk.Expect more.The gas and oil companies are fighting back.Gone are the days where they sit mute as Obama admits he will destroy Coal companies.As one of his top men admits the goal is to “crucify” gas companies.As he block most permits even to the point of being in contempt.Bottom line is Air force One will never go down the runway powered by windmill,solar,or Battery power.We need to tap our own energy reserves.The lefts plug in the pipe is about to be blown clear.This is long overdue.,
Michael E. I see you operate under the assumption that if you repeat a lie often enough it assumes an aura of reality. Why would the oil companies need to produce ads when they have unthinking shills such as yourself, and the corporate media, to spread their propaganda? Just to point out one aspect of your unawareness, the oil companies have been producing propaganda/ads since the 1950s. They even produced cartoons to be shown before movies in the theaters.
The dangers of fracking are real. It is an outright lie that the flaming kitchen tap was hooked to a gas line. It is also an outright lie the EPA found no fracking damage in either Texas or Colorado, and documented damage is being found in Pennsylvania. The EPA was forced under industry pressure to reword some of their findings, but the findings themselves stand. That’s reality, bubba.
Here’s another reality. The coal companies need to go away, because they are destroying the environment that healthy economies and human quality of life depend upon. Another reality is that Obama has opened up more land to oil and gas leases than bush jr. was able to get away with, so your Obama comment just shows how thoroughly brainwashed you are.
Here’s another reality you’re going to have to start getting used to. The energy requirements of the Industrial Growth Society are only necessary to prop up elite profits, but not for actual quality of life. There’s much more to say on that, but I’m afraid it would probably be lost on you, at least until you’re willing to take the red pill.
ABC is such a shill for corporate interests, that the whole company would be better off staying away from real issues and just report on tawdry starlet gossip: http://youtu.be/KqVNv-rzxcA
Well Dave number one…… anti Oil adds(fracking ect) I would guess run about a thousand to one to oil company adds in damn near anyones mind today.
Number two….YES it was admitted that that commercial was exactly the fraud i stated.More so… a good friend of mine is a top EPA person who has illuminated me on this case.The EPA is now expecting a countersuit from oil companies .They(The EPA) fully expect to loose, and pay out.The case has been dropped against those oil companies.All charges are deemed and stamped erroneous.
Number three…Coal companies need to go away?Only if THEY decide so.You the government may lay down punitive taxes and regulations to destroy them.It does not make it right.
Four….Obama is still under contempt for blocking permits.Any expansion is due to pre Obama era signing deals (Bush)that only now are coming to fruition.To take any credit is the biggest lie of all.He has blocked every development of natural resources he can.I say that as a BLANKET statement.All his and Biden’s investments into green power of taxpayer dollars have flopped.
Your last thought is complete uno bomber crap so I will avoid any discussion on it.
Lastly it is your side that try’s to frame every argument and perpetuates those lies across the spectrum. THE 1%……..corporate boogie men…….military industrial shadow men…..Class warfare……Evil wall Streeters…..Endless fear mongering and cliches regarding the right.As far as fracking read how many T bone Pickens has done.Thousands upon thousands.Since the late seventies.So far so good.You on the left never see the technical problems are worthy of fixing.Just retreat defeat and surrender on every issue.
So, Dave E., michael e. not only completely, utterly, missed the point but actually wound up supporting one of the very points you made, in addition to generally missing the truth evident in the entire article, and also making a fool of himself, and a boot-lickin’ toady he proudly is as well? Is that what you’re saying? You’re new here, aren’t you? Nice work, by the way, and welcome to FAIR blog, and come back.
And, furthermore, did you know that the evil big lib Big Brother government is running (At a rate of1000 to one! Against the benevolent oil companies! Who never hurt a fly, or a sea lion, or a shrimp, or an oil platform worker, or an entire industry or eco-system!) “anti Oil adds” (sic) . . . in damn near anyones mind today.” (sic) (Emphasis mine –TN–spelling errors his) So there. Be careful. Our minds are being infiltrated by either the government or the “Oil adds,” I’m not sure which. So, if you get a chance, take both the red and the blue pill, but then spit the blue one out when no one’s looking.
One thing I can tell you is the EPA of late has been turned into a Fossil Fuel Protection Agency. But I’d be interested in any links that Michael-e can provide. I have seen none so far. But then the Oil, Coal, Natural Gas and Nuclear are still darlings of the President and Congress.
So you are joining the side that will prevail for at least 100 more years. Of course the worst case scenario that the Pentagon and CIA have for the military means to counter the human fallout of the Green House Affect would be immense with deadly force. But the govt, the corporations will be ready for it with powers equal to the govt to accomplish the down side of their mission. But their weapons will be used against the hordes of starving people suffering in the new world that is already dawning right now. The only freedoms then will be for eh corporations to allow you to live under their yoke of control. It will be better than living outside of the archeologies scrambling for food and water no matter how contaminated. A hot flat earth with the flat being the majority of people economically impoverished while the few rich live way above the teeming slums of earth. The only freedom you will have is to die. The wealthy will have access to the best most up to date technology for life extension.
Reported in my local paper, May 4, 2012: “Wyoming’s governor persuaded the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to postpone an announcement linking hydraulic fracturing to groundwater contamination, giving state officials–whom the EPA had privately briefed on the study–time to attempt to debunk the finding before it rocked the oil and gas industry more than a month later, an investigation by The Associated Press has found.”
I don’t know where the matter stands now but you can read all about it: “EPA agreed to delay info about link between fracking and groundwater contamination”
Frack the U.S. so we can grow the economy in China.
Here’s something I just read about–a planned shale site that aims to use waterless fracking by using a thick gel made from propane. The gel is pumped into the ground as opposed to sand, water, and chemicals. The gel reverts to “vapor” underground and returns to the surface in a recoverable form (whatever that means). It does not carry the chemicals used during the drilling process back to the surface, according to the article.
I agree with environmental groups that insist an environmental impact statement is needed prior to any implementation of this process.
I think the gushing report was interesting beyond merely avoiding the word “fracking” and the likely, though deliberately obscured, environmental downsides:
Some individual land owners might get wealthy from fracking leases.
And that wealth will come at a high societal cost.
This dynamic of _individuated benefits_ in combination with _shared costs_ reminds you of…everything, and must never be articulated.
Can someone find out what MichealE is taking. That must be some major league psychotropics. Every thing he has every posted is exactly backwards from the reality. Been listening to KPFA and FAIR for many years, and in the beginning I was skeptical. But after the third of fourth time I heard the Big News Media pick up things they had been stressing for some time already I payed even more attention.
Folks like MichealE somehow think the ‘Rethuglican Teavangelicals” are going to suddenly realize ‘how loyal’ they’ve been and are going to shower them with Gold. What they doesn’t realize is what that “gold shower” will really be. But for the time they are going to be loyal, proper little Jr. Spy League members, report all those nasty thought crimes, do thier “two minute Hate” like a good little corporate lapdogs and otherwise not think about anything. Why think when all you have to do is ‘turn everything upside and claim every lie is the truth and every truth is a lie’. If you don’t have to deal with the nasty little things like “Facts” then you your not held back on rants.
Sad really when you think about it, I think these goes back to when Reagan and others signed those bills that tossed all the mentally ill out onto the streets. They Struggle daily to find the reality but can’t quite comprehend it, so they add their little lies in the mistaken belief that they are living in reality. Even sadder, is by the time they actually realize the truth, it would be too late if we relied on them for any facts.
I would like to know in what position Michael e. does whatever kind of medicine he says he does and where. Why? I would like to stay away from that place.
As for anti-oil ads, I’m really wondering about that. And no oil ads before now. I’ve seen Shell, Exxon, etc. since I was little. “Put a Tiger in YOUR Tank” was always one of my favorites and so much fun that Pat Conroy gave it a boost in one of his books.
Tony the Tiger was a fav with so many of us back then. Everyone knew what Texaco’s logo was and which radio program it sponsored, likewise the rest of the companies. Looked pretty pro-oil to me.
Well I have heard the lot of you now, sing the same old same old beliefs that the libs pull about in their little re wagons day after day.Corporations BAD BAD MEN…….Oil companies BAD BAD MEN….Coal and natural gas companies BAD BAD MEN.Cutting down the trees,fouling the water,polluting the air,melting the glaciers,holy shit chicken little the Republithugs is coming and they are pulling down the sky with them.Padramemelyrn even said”everything he believes is opposite reality.”That one made me laugh.Who’s reality Padra?The liberal talking points?See there is a whole world out there that believes you are wrong.Do you understand that word?Does it shake your liberal elitism to its core?And what happens is is this.We vote you out.Then you bleat that we are too stupid to understand your wisdom.Or we have been co opted by da BAD BAD BOOGIE MEN.Your arrogance is truly monumental.
But a question to you all………….Lets say we destroy all our natural resources exploration and use.The obvious endgame to all your wet dream scenarios.All those bad rich guys are beggars overnight.God I feel good.What now geniuses?Go on retell me the bed time story about how papa Obama is gonna have green companies that will warm our homes.Fly our planes.Gas our cars.Tell me how it works
Ok, ok, we have to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels. There! That was easily said, but is not so easily done. Right now, today, 56% of the electricity consumed in the U.S. is brought our way courtesy of coal-fueled generators.
Here is a real conundrum that environmentalists and labor – and the rest of us – must resolve: What will happen to the jobs of miners if coal mining ends? How about the railroad workers who haul it away? And what about all the other workers in the coal-electricity chain?
Here is what must be done: If miners are pink-slipped on a Friday, they must be told to report to [as an example] a solar panel manufacturer across the street on Monday, and begin working there at no less than the same wages and benefits they had while mining coal. Ditto all the other workers.
Answers are too easy to come by when the jobs and livelihoods of others are treated in a cavalier fashion. I’ve heard all the “but our health is at risk” arguments, but very rarely do I hear any concern for the workers and their families whose jobs are at stake. We cannot expect them to give up their jobs for the “common good” any more than any one of us would be willing to do the same. Besides, there are just too many contradictions. Take Boeing workers. They are a good bunch, but the company they work for isn’t so dandy. Boeing produces Cruise Missiles, nerve gas, and other weapons of mass destruction. If folks are to be consistent we must tell Boeing workers to give up all the jobs derived from weapons production. After all, it wasn’t lumps of coal that killed tens of thousands of Iraqis.
Seriously, we must have a civil discussion about how to transition to green energy. If the comfortable class continues telling workers that their jobs are expendable, we won’t get anywhere.
Just recently I asked a most caustic anti-coal person the following question: “Would you be willing to make the mortgage payment for a coal miner who gave up his job until such time as he gains employment in a green energy producing industry?” Oof! It was as if I smacked him up side his head. (I did not win him over. He remains caustic.)
Once again, we must have “do unto others as we would have others do unto us” discussions as a precursor to finding solutions.
Rich A.: Does it really matter what we think anyway? Most in Congress will continue to respond to the needs of the people who bought their seats and that would be the fossil fuel industry.
perhaps you didn’t see the USGS maps, if not go to the USGS site and behold all of their maps showing untapped natural gas and more literally in peoples backyards.
Rich we have to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels right now because why?Because with our economy in tatters due to government waste and excess this would be a good time?Because at a time when we are finding gas, oil and coal reserves;a literal ocean of energy under our feet, enough to take care of all our needs for hundreds of years without a drop from anywhere else,this seems like a good time to you?That caustic oil guy should of said to you WHAT GREEN ENERGY JOBS?Your answer would of been “the ones we are gonna shove down your frigging throats whether they exist or not”.Whether they work or not.Rich for the love of God take a look at the billions Obama and Biden invested our money into their pet green jobs projects.All are belly up.No success stories there fella.Look at Al Gores investments.Without the sky is falling global warming fear projections it is all going down there too.We can have a civil discussion absolutely.Green jobs will work when the market makes it profitable.Government interference and demands for the sake of political considerations will send everything belly up.The goal now is to drill baby drill.Develop our own resources.
We need to get off fossil fuel now, all of us, but that isn’t going to happen. We of earth aren’t prepared so GHGs will be being put into the air continually (rising 4%-6% every year) for some time to come. So don’t be surprised if the earth’s climate becomes so bad, and sooner than you think, because very harsh.
Estimates are the GHG will heat the atmosphere so much that it could delay the next ice age for 100,000 years. Don’t jump for joy yet. The highs could be 9-11 degrees C higher. That is Permian style conditions, only with all the billions of people and pollution and trash mixed in. And it could happen in just 100 years. Going past 3⁰ rise would make it many magnitudes harder to push it back to temperatures closer to what was there after the last Ice Age that allowed us to flourish.