My youngest son is hopping mad.

[mmonk]

Many of the places he used to go on the internet to research the environmental dangers of fracking for natural gas have been changed to declare it safe and also declare natural gas as a clean technology for the future. The EPA and others are for it now. Anybody else experiencing this?

[woo me with science]

1. There's a weird infiltration/transformation going on

on political discussion boards, too.

Corporate tentacles run deep.

[mmonk]

2. One woud think commercials by natural gas and big oil

that run every half hour on TV woud be enough. Does everything have to be so deeply corrupted?

[Robb]

3. Gotta spend money to make money.

T Boone knows that well.

Also, easy PR Kung fu move when you own the media. Get ink and airtime for the nuttiest zealots with the wildest claims ("fracking kills babies dead in their cribz!!!&quot , then have a calm rational discussion about how those claims are silly-- and make sure you ignore the real problems. End result, people get the feeling things are hunky dory.

The fringe always defines the debate. Sometimes that reality gets coopted and the useful idiot paradigm comes into play.

[mmonk]

4. Useful idiot paradigm is a coinable phrase these days.

[Robb]

10. It's the downside of a flat playing field

The web model is great, everyone can get a voice. But it's also easy to cherrypicking the outliers and hold them up as representative.

[Brickbat]

5. Examples?

[B Calm]

6. I like to see them myself

[mmonk]

7. I will get my son to make a list.

Seems to be everything from wikipedia to the EPA. As a frequent visitor to many environmental web sites, he claims they are all being edited or changed.

[lookingfortruth]

8. Propaganda?

[mmonk]

9. 180 degree turns would indicate something to that effect.

[SoutherDem]

11. Have I missed something?

When did the EPA start to favor fracking?

But the oil companies are spending tons of money to give themselves a environmentally friendly image. I didn't know the EPA bought this "Brooklyn Bridge".