Chesapeake's Gas-Powered News [1]
Submitted by Diane Farsetta [2] on
Faced with "public complaints about its new drilling in an urban area" -- Fort Worth, Texas -- the natural gas company Chesapeake Energy is about to launch its own "brand-new media source," Shale.tv [3]. The online video channel will be produced by "three Dallas-area former journalists," and is named after the Barnett Shale natural gas formation in North Texas. In response to questions about Shale.tv's objectivity, Chesapeake spokesperson Julie Wilson pointed out, "We pay those journalists -- whether on Channel 8 or Channel 11 or the [Fort Worth] Star-Telegram -- in terms of advertising support. ... Instead of running ads on the program, we're just writing the check direct." Chesapeake has also hired actor Tommy Lee Jones, "to help deliver its point of view." And, since April, the Chesapeake-funded group American Clean Skies Foundation [4] has run CleanSkies.tv [5]. The online video channel "has applied for press credentials that would place its reporters and crew inside the U.S. Capitol," reports Dow Jones [6]. The CleanSkies.tv program "Clean Skies Sunday," which is anchored by former CBS Morning News host Susan McGinnis, is also broadcast on WJLA-7, the ABC affiliate in Washington DC. A recent show featured Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon discussing a Clean Skies Foundation report that concluded that "natural gas supplies are vast enough to meet current demand for more than 100 years, a key talking point by the natural gas industry in its congressional lobbying efforts."