Inaccuracies in Dimock article....my response.

Please note: what follows is my response to an email sent to me from Michael Lebron of Damascus Citizens for Sustainability.  To read Mr. Lebron's original message to me, please see the post immediately preceeding this one.  The reason I've chosen to post my response to Mr. Lebron is because I want to draw attention to the fact that all of us fighting against this fracking mess are in this together.  So here goes:

Dear Mr. Lebron,
I'm a bit perplexed as to why you're accusing me of false reporting when it's not my reporting that seems to have incurred your ire.  If you actually read the blog post carefully, you would see that my own portion of it consists of a paragraph lead in--commenting on the article which appeared in the Times Leader of Wilkes-Barre.  After my own paragraph, appears the following:

[Note: this article, written by Matt Hughes, appeared Oct 1, 2010 in the Times Leader of Wilkes-Barre.  Click HERE to see the original article which includes photographs.]  The article then appears as it did on the TL's website.

The section you quote from is actually Matt Hughes's article.  Furthermore, if you had actually bothered to click on that link to see it as it appeard on the Times Leader's site, you would see that Josh Fox himself commented on Hughes's article almost immediately after it appeared:

"Actually, I can't take credit for the demonstration or the signs. I had no idea that was prepared, it just fit perfectly with my question and I guess the crowd decided that it was the right time to unveil the signs. I was as surprised as anyone there. But it was a very appropriate and stunning move. Great job to everyone involved in planning that one! - Josh"

This same comment also appears on Gasland's Facebook site following a posting about the Times Leader's article.

I think it's important to remember that we're all working towards the same goal: to draw attention to this horrible practice of fracking that's quite literally tearing our communities apart.  While I can empathize that you might be upset if someone else is given credit for the hard work DCS and the Carter Road community put in to make their presence known at this event, it's hardly the first time a reporter got it wrong.  Lord knows it's happened to me.  Not having been at the event, however, I had no way of knowing who made the signs or who didn't.  Frankly, that wasn't the point I was trying to make when I reposted the Times Leader's article; my point was in drawing attention to the fact that Dimock is finally going to receive some restitution.

As for your seemingly sour grapes over Josh Fox, I think one can quite legitimately argue that GASLAND has drawn *international* attention to the little town of Dimock as well as to the greater issue of fracking.  My blog is one of many devoted to the natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale; your group is one of many also devoted to bringing attention to the issue.  All of us must realize however, that sometimes it takes something big--like a film--to really get the attention of people not directly involved--people who don't have to deal with the trucks, the roads, the noise, the fear--people who have no idea how much of a marketing scam the government has let loose in order to sell natural gas as the 2nd coming.  GASLAND has done that.  I've never met Josh Fox, but I've seen the film.  He has shone an international spotlight on this issue and for that I'm grateful.

So if you are so upset that the wrong people were given credit for signs that were made, I would suggest you direct your emails/comments to Matt Hughes.  *His* email address appears at the end of his article--as it appears both on the Times Leader's site and at the end of the (re)posting on my blog.