The strangest thing about today is that it is so hard to lie...if anyone cares. And it is always interesting to see who can get away with it, and who gets held accountable. Now Josh Fox is lying about why he got kicked off TV in the first place.
Back in the days when the media was the local paper, when the ticker was the source of the headlines, when TV had two hours of news a night, and radio had no "right wing talk show hosts" it was easy to tell a story, stick to it and if you could spin a good yarn and have others support you, you couldn't be caught in the lie.
My how that has changed, and for some it is down right frustrating. Today on Fox News the producer of Gasland was being interviewed about the recent EPA study that says fracking is not contributing to widespread ground water contamination. He was notably disturbed, he accused the EPA of dumbing down science, he accused the administration, the Obama Administration, of being pro-fracking, and he even accused the host of the show of lying.
But who is the lier in this situation?
The movie in question suggests that fracking is causing irreparable damage to people's property in the Northeast and features land owners showing Josh Fox, the producer, all the damage that has been done. This includes faucets that spout water that literally burns if you put a match to it. All of this is attributed to recent developments in fracking technology that has unlocked the natural gas trapped in shale or source rock.
The problem Josh has is that the EPA study basically says that if fracking is done correctly it will not affect drinking water at all. So is Josh being opportunistic when he uses people's obvious anger at having methane in their water to put out a movie that gives him notoriety? Does he know he is wrong and doesn't care, or is he sticking to his theory that has proven much more complicated to prove than he thought when he started, because it makes him money.
Another famous, similarly scary movie was produced and its maker is a multimillionaire. Only problem that gentleman has is that his facts are equally dubious. He even earned an Oscar for the effort. When an Inconvenient Truth came out literally everyone in the media and a good number of the general populus all jumped on board and began preaching the woes of "Global Warming" and lets remember the planet "had a fever", not a "Climate Change" issue. However, as the facts were checked his movie was proven to have so many errors and misstatements that in order for it to be shown in schools it came with a disclaimer. However, this hasn't stopped the man that invented the internet from continuing and shouting as loud as he can that people that disagree with his interpretation of the science are "liars", "flat earth's", and "deniers". Not a bad strategy if those with the internet don't call you out on it.
Now lets return to Josh Fox and Gasland since he was just on the news. His problem really stems from the fact that while he has been trying to stop the natural gas industry, he has not created a new industry that liberals can use to control others. If he was creating the business of "Climate Change" or the business of "Anti-fracking whatever" and the liberals could get behind that to control others he would probably be ok. However, that just isn't the case.
The net result is he is left holding a somewhat empty bag. The strategy of decrying the other guy, of accusing the government of a cover up, even telling the host he is lying isn't really going to help here. He can say that the Obama administration is in the bag for the big oil companies, but if that were so, where is the XL pipeline? If that were so, why is Obama left holding the bag for companies like Solindra?
Now back to lying, he accused the host of being a liar because he told him that people had been complaining of burning tap water long before the fracking began in the area. Josh said he was a liar. The host replied that he had done it himself and kicked him off the set. Now that has to be inconvenient. Especially since a quick internet search (thanks Al) shows us towns called "Burning Springs" and "Firewater" have been around since the 1800s. We also have had numerous moonshiners die when they dug a water well into a shallow pool of methane.
It's Ok Josh, you are not the first to get caught. I imagine Hillary is lamenting the day she thought she was landing under "sniper fire" only to later be shown the video of her walking the reception line. I am sure Brian Williams isn't really too happy about "NOT" being shot down in an army helicopter and of course the fact the world hasn't warmed and the seas haven't swallowed us isn't very good for Al Gore.
But then again all of them are still raking in millions, so I guess lying is still ok for some people. I guess Josh will have to ask himself, why is it ok for them to tell lies and profit and he got kicked off the stage.