Mitchell's tenacity led to US energy boom

NEW YORK (AP) ? The technological breakthrough pioneered by George P. Mitchell, the billionaire Texas oilman and philanthropist who died Friday at age 94, reversed the fortunes of the U.S. energy industry and reshaped the global energy landscape.

As Mitchell was doggedly pursuing the natural gas he and others knew was trapped in thin layers of sedimentary rock under several U.S. states, it appeared to most that the world was running out of oil and gas and what was left was found mostly in the Middle East.

U.S. natural gas production had peaked in 1972 and prices were rising to alarming new levels in the middle of the 2000s, raising heating and electricity bills and sending U.S. manufacturers of plastics, fertilizer and countless other natural gas-dependent goods overseas.

U.S. oil production, meanwhile, had peaked in 1970, and fell every year but one between 1985 and 2008.

But after 20 years of trying, Mitchell finally learned how to combine horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing, a process together known now generally as fracking, to release natural gas at a rate fast enough to turn a profit. But the practice has also sparked powerful antagonism, especially in the Northeast, from residents and environmentalists opposed to increased industrial activity in rural areas and concerned that the fracking process or the wastewater it generates can contaminate drinking water.

By the mid-2000s, fracking had spread across the industry and the country, and natural gas production in the U.S. began to soar in such places as Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. In 2005, the U.S. produced 19 million cubic feet of gas, about the same amount produced in 1968. Last year, the U.S. produced 25 million cubic feet, a U.S. record and more gas than any other nation. And all this while drillers held back: They would have produced more if prices hadn't fallen to 20-year lows.

But this cheap gas lowered energy bills for consumers and inspired plans for new chemical plants, steel plants and fertilizer plants around the nation from manufacturers looking to capitalize on some of the lowest natural gas prices in the world. Electric utilities drastically increased the use of natural gas to generate power, and cut back on the use of coal, helping the U.S. power industry substantially reduce its emissions of carbon dioxide.

The U.S. now has the potential to produce so much gas that companies are looking to export it to Europe and Asia, just five years after regulators were approving plans to import natural gas in hopes of avoiding an energy crisis.

In some areas fracking has been blamed for air pollution and gas leaks that have ruined well water, but the Obama administration and many state regulators say the practice is safe when done properly. New York, which is thought to have considerable natural gas resources, has imposed a moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing and star-studded activist groups have staged countless rallies and events to generate opposition to the practice.

As natural gas drillers were perfecting fracking, oil engineers learned to adapt the process to squeeze crude out of oil-bearing rock. By 2008, they had learned to tap oil deposits in formations in North Dakota and South Texas, and U.S. oil production started to creep up. It soon boomed.

Last year U.S. crude production rose to 6.5 million barrels per day the U.S. after posting the largest single-year rise in oil production since 1951, and production is on track to rise to 7.3 million barrels per day this year. That's an increase of 46 percent since 2008. The increase of 2.3 million barrels per day is about as much oil as Venezuela produces. The International Energy Agency says the U.S. is on track to be the world's biggest crude producer by the end of the decade.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mitchells-tenacity-led-us-energy-boom-234922177.html

shea mcclellin nfl draft 2012 whitney mercilus 2012 nfl draft picks andrew luck andrew luck trent richardson

Debt Ceiling Looms Large in Sanford Stakes

Unusual Way Part of Well-Matched San Clemente

Consistent filly Unusual Way, a stakes winner in her only try on turf, is part of a well-matched field of 3-year-old fillies set to battle July 21 in the $150,000 San Clemente Stakes (gr. IIT) at Del Mar.

?1 hour ago

Executiveprivilege Can't Catch Reneesgotzip

Dual grade I winner Executiveprivilege made her long-awaited 3-year-old debut July 18 at Del Mar, but she was no match for speedster Reneesgotzip in a salty allowance test on the main track.

?2 hours ago

Debt Ceiling Looms Large in Sanford Stakes

Bashford Manor (gr. III) winner Debt Ceiling, undefeated in three starts for Maryland-based trainer John Robb, faces six others in the 99th running of the $200,000 Sanford Stakes (gr. II) July 21 at Saratoga.

?4 hours ago

WinStar Offers Saratoga Challenge

WinStar Farm's Stablemates program offers first annual Saratoga Challenge. Participants must predict the leading sires, trainer, jockey and freshman sire of the meet to win prizes.

?4 hours ago

CHRB Delays Action on Southern Cal Race Dates

Concerned that the racing industry is no closer to resolving issues surrounding the closure of Hollywood Park next year, the California Horse Racing Board July 18 put off approval of racing dates in 2014-15 for a month.

?4 hours ago

Breeders' Cup-Related Fantasy League Launched

The Fantasy 'Capping game was created and conceived in a joint venture between the Vision 2020 Thoroughbred industry leadership group and Breeders' Cup.

?5 hours ago

Lady Canterbury Stakes Regains Listed Status

Following a review of the recent Lady Canterbury Stakes by the American Graded Stakes Committee, the listed status of the stakes that was contested July 13 at Canterbury Park has been reinstated.

?5 hours ago

Heavy Breathing to Stand in New York in 2014

Following the record-breaking success of last year's top New York freshman sire Frost Giant, a group including that stallion's principal owner will stand his full brother, stakes-placed Heavy Breathing, in New York in 2014.

?5 hours ago

OBS August Yearling Sale Catalog Now Online

The catalog for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s August yearling sale Aug. 21-22 is now available via the OBS website at www.obssales.com.

?5 hours ago

NBC Sports Unveils Saratoga Schedule

The New York Racing Association and the NBC Sports Group are partnering for a third consecutive year to present the "Summer at Saratoga" series, with seven live broadcasts from Saratoga Race Course.

?6 hours ago

Saratoga Images from Widener Collection

Images from the Joseph Widener Collection taken at Saratoga Race Course.

view slideshow

?6 hours ago

Summer Showdown Contest Begins with Carryover

TwinSpires.com's summer handicapping contest is offering $1,500 daily to anyone who places consecutive winning $10 show bets for an entire card. If no one succeeds, the payout rolls over to the next day.

?6 hours ago

Robin Scully of Clovelly Farms Dies

Robin Scully, prominent Thoroughbred breeder and owner, died in his sleep July 12 at his home, Abbottswood, in the village of Stow-on-the-Wold, in the English Cotswolds. He was 89 years old.

?6 hours ago

Talent, Riposte Square Off in Irish Oaks

Impressive Epsom Oaks (Eng-I) winner Talent and Royal Ascot victress Riposte headline an eight-horse field for the Darley Irish Oaks (Ire-I) July 20 at the Curragh.

?7 hours ago

Churchill Completes Maine Casino Purchase

Louisville-based Churchill Downs Inc. says it has completed the purchase of a Maine casino in a deal valued at about $160 million.

?8 hours ago

Saratoga Taking Hot Weather Precautions

With weather forecasters calling for temperatures in the low to mid 90s July 19 in Saratoga Springs, New York Racing Association officials are taking additional precautions.

?8 hours ago

Darley Flying Start Program Marks 10 Years

The Darley Flying Start class of 2012-14 got a send-off dinner to Australia July 15, about two weeks after the program's 10-year reunion was held in Ireland.

?9 hours ago

F-T Texas Yearlings Sale has National Appeal

Fasig-Tipton's Texas division will hold its summer yearling sale at the company's sales complex at Lone Star Park Aug. 26.

?9 hours ago

That Handicapping Show - Delaware Handicap

Tom LaMarra and Claire Novak handicap the Delaware Handicap and CCA Oaks. Do you think the races will be exciting with such small fields but big talent?

watch video

?9 hours ago

Former Jockey Raul Cespedes Dies

Former jockey Raul Cespedes, who rode at California tracks from 1967-1982, died of cancer July 15 at his home in Fontana., Calif., at the age of 67.

?10 hours ago

Rosario Wins ESPY Award for Top Jockey

Joel Rosario was named outstanding jockey of 2013 at the ESPYS Presented by Capital One July 17 during an awards ceremony held in downtown Los Angeles at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live.

?10 hours ago

Moving Desert First Winner for Desert Code

Moving Desert, a 2-year-old filly by Desert Code became her sire's first winner July 17, capturing her maiden by three lengths in a five-furlong sprint over Del Mar's Polytrak.

?10 hours ago

New Vocations Charity Show a Success

The 10th annual New Vocations Charity Horse Show was a huge success with more than 1,100 entries and $50,000 raised to support racehorse aftercare.

?11 hours ago

Lauers Dominate Indiana-Bred Stakes Night

Mike and Penny Lauer had a big night at Indiana Downs July 18 when they won three of four state-bred stakes and banked almost $200,000.

?12 hours ago

Saratoga 150th Anniversary - Chad Brown

Trainer Chad Brown talks about his memories of growing up around Saratoga and what it means to be involved in the industry and at Saratoga during it's 150th anniversary.

watch video

?12 hours ago

NYRA Chief Meets With Locals in Saratoga

After meeting with the media earlier in the day July 17, New York Racing Association president and chief executive officer Chris Kay made his first public appearance at the annual Saratoga Race Course meet preview.

?15 hours ago

Osteochondrosis Field Evaluation Protocol Developed

It's common knowledge that osteochondrosis?a developmental orthopedic disease that results from a disruption in the growth of articular cartilage located in specific joints?can cause problems for young horses, but how common is it? How are different breeds affected? Where are the most common lesion sites? And, of course, what?s the m...

?15 hours ago

Gervinho, Rising Legend Take Oceanside Honors

Gervinho grabbed the lead in deep stretch and prevailed gamely over the fast-closing Greeley Awesome to win the opening division of the Oceanside Stakes on opening day at Del Mar July 17.

?Yesterday

Eblouissante Could Dazzle in Shuvee Return

Eblouissante, half sister of 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta, will return to the races July 20 when she aims for her first stakes win in the $200,000 84 Lumber Shuvee Handicap (gr. III) at Saratoga Race Course.

?Yesterday

Essence Hit Man Scores Bold Venture Repeat

Essence Hit Man had to survive a claim of foul after holding off 28-1 shot Dimension in deep stretch by a neck to score a repeat victory in the $162,002 Bold Venture Stakes (Can-III) July 17 at Woodbine.

?Yesterday

Haskin: The Story of Mort and Omaha

For 87-year-old Morton Porter, the memories still are indelible, as he recalls those magical years with the only internationally renowned Triple Crown winner, Omaha.

read blog

?Yesterday

French Raider Sofast May Shake Up Eddie Read

French invader Sofast adds a new face to the $300,000 Eddie Read Stakes, which attracted a familiar group of Southern California-based middle-distance turf runners to the first grade I event of the season July 20 at Del Mar.

?Yesterday

Wide Open Field of Fillies for Arlington Oaks

An open field of experience, including graded stakes winners Seaneen Girl and Gold Edge, makes up the field of seven 3-year-old fillies that will go from the gate for the $150,000 Arlington Oaks (gr. III) July 20.

?Yesterday

Royal Delta Seeks Redemption in Del 'Cap

Champion racemare Royal Delta aims for a title defense July 20 in the $750,000 Delaware Handicap (gr. I), seeking redemption after a five-length loss in the June 15 Fleur de Lis Handicap (gr. II) at Churchill Downs.

?Yesterday

Sign Reinstated as 2012 Pocahontas Winner

The 2012 Pocahontas Stakes (gr. II) win by Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider's filly Sign was reinstated following a settlement announced July 17 by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.

?Yesterday

New NYRA CEO Kay Addresses Media

Despite a press conference that was at times contentious, New York Racing Association president and CEO Chris Kay said that he hopes to be at the helm of NYRA for a long, long time.

?Yesterday

Amberjack Tops New York Derby Lineup

Mike Lee Stakes winner Amberjack looks to take the next leg of the Big Apple Triple in the $150,000 New York Derby July 20 at Finger Lakes, the $250,000 bonus for the three-race series still within his reach.

?Yesterday

Sisterly Love After Grade in Ontario Matron

Sisterly Love, coming off her first stakes win in a romp over the Polytrack at Woodbine, returns for a shot at her first graded victory in the $150,000 Ontario Matron (Can-III) July 20.

?Yesterday

Princess of Sylmar in Tough for CCA Oaks

Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) victress Princess of Sylmar and Unlimited Budget, who recently ran sixth in the June 8 Belmont Stakes (gr. I), top a quality field of five for the $300,000 TVG Coaching Club American Oaks (gr. I).

?Yesterday

Miraculous Hard Way Continues to Win

The 8-year-old French gelding made a remarkable recovery from a crushed vertebrae and continues to race and win.

?Yesterday

Byrne Weighing Options for Take Charge Indy

Trainer Pat Byrne said the Whitney Invitational (gr. I) and the Monmouth Cup (gr. II) are potential races for the 4-year-old colt, who will work July 19 at Churchill Downs before a decision is made.

?Yesterday

Horsemen Force Contract Issue With Calder

The Florida Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association has told Calder Casino & Race Course it will withhold its consent for simulcast approval effective July 25 because the group has no purse contract with the track.

?Yesterday

What's Going On Here: Ready-Made Runners

Fasig-Tipton, Barretts playing a vital role in attracting owners.

read blog

?Yesterday

McLellan, Saginaw Honored by National HBPA

Reid McLellan, executive director of the Groom Elite Program, and Saginaw, a winner of nine stakes since his claim for $30,000 in March 2012, were honored by the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association.

?Yesterday

Change Ordered in WV Interagency Agreement

The head of the West Virginia Department of Revenue has issued a directive that orders the state racing commission to continue providing its own legal services.

?Yesterday

Equine Collapse Reviewed

There are few things more frightening for an owner than watching their horse collapse without warning or apparent cause. By the same token, unraveling the cause behind an equine collapse often presents veterinarians with a diagnostic challenge, and in many cases the root cause of a horse's collapse can't be determined.

?Yesterday

Hill 'n' Dale Sets Violence's Fee at $15,000

Hill 'n' Dale Farms announced July 16 that grade I winner Violence will stand the 2014 breeding season for $15,000.

?2 days ago

Stories from Cot Campbell: Fred Hooper

Fred Hooper understood livestock, liked racing, followed bloodlines and really did have an authentic eye for an equine athlete.

read blog

?2 days ago

Breeders' Cup Board Announces Election Result

The Breeders' Cup announced July 16 election results for five positions to its board of directors. Bill Oppenheim and Dr. J. David Richardson, are newly elected directors to the board.

?2 days ago

Equine Dentist Chris Brown Dies at 68

Brown won a court case in 2009 that allowed lay equine dentists to work in New York.

?2 days ago

Source: http://news.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=79510&source=rss

jimmie johnson juan pablo montoya crash chardon high school shooting mark martin cleveland news daytona race the cutting edge

Emma Roberts Arrested For Smacking BF Evan Peters Around!

Emma Roberts Arrested For Smacking BF Evan Peters Around!

Emma Roberts was arrested for domestic violence in Canada for allegedly hitting her actor boyfriend Evan Peters. The 22-year-old niece of actress Julia Roberts was taken into custody on July 7 in Montreal after getting the nasty fight that left Evan with a bloody nose. Police were called to the hotel after someone reported a ...

Emma Roberts Arrested For Smacking BF Evan Peters Around! Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/07/emma-roberts-arrested-for-smacking-bf-evan-peters-around/

the killers brandy michael pineda charles taylor carl crawford mad cow disease rampart

Tragic Mistake Or Deliberate Plan? 30 Million People Injected with Mandatory Vaccination Containing Live SV40 Cancer Virus

Daisy Luther
The Organic Prepper
July 17th, 2013
Reader Views: 750

People like to shake their heads at the eccentricities of those of us who?eschew vaccines?for ourselves and our families, but a recent document that was published (then immediately removed from the website) by the CDC gives even more credibility to our claims of ?You just don?t know what?s in that stuff.?

A polio vaccine injection that was given to people between 1955-1963 contained a cancer virus. Here is a cached copy of the?CDC document.

Cancer, Simian Virus 40 (SV40), and Polio Vaccine Fact Sheet

• SV40 is a virus found in some species of monkey.
• SV40 was discovered in 1960. Soon afterward, the virus was found in polio vaccine.
• More than 98 million Americans received one or more doses of polio vaccine from 1955 to 1963 when a proportion of vaccine was contaminated with SV40; it has been estimated that 10?30 million Americans could have received an SV40 contaminated dose of vaccine.
• SV40 virus has been found in certain types of cancer in humans, but it has not been determined that SV40 causes these cancers.
• The majority of scientific evidence suggests that SV40-contaminated vaccine did not cause cancer; however, some research results are conflicting and more studies are needed.
• Polio vaccines being used today do not contain SV40. All of the current evidence indicates that polio vaccines have been free of SV40 since 1963.

Additional Facts

• In the 1950s, rhesus monkey kidney cells, which contain SV40 if the animal is infected, were used in preparing polio vaccines. Because SV40 was not discovered until 1960, no one was aware in the 1950s that polio vaccine could be contaminated.
• SV40 was found in the injected form of the polio vaccine (IPV), not the kind given by mouth (OPV).
• Not all doses of IPV were contaminated. It has been estimated that 10?30 million people actually received a vaccine that contained SV40.
• Some evidence suggests that receipt of SV40-contaminated polio vaccine may increase risk of cancer. However, the majority of studies done in the U.S. and Europe which compare persons who received SV40-contaminated polio vaccine with those who did not have shown no causal relationship between receipt of SV40-contaminated polio vaccine and cancer.

More information

• For in-depth information about SV40, polio vaccine, and cancer, see our frequently asked questions.
• National Immunization Hotline: English 1 (800) 232-2522 Spanish 1 (800) 232-0233age last modified: October 22, 2007
• Content source: Immunization Safety Office

So?.more than 50 years after the fact, the CDC quietly admits that this vaccine could have kept folks from getting polio but may have given them cancer instead??????????????

A peer reviewed paper from the?Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center at Loyola University?confirms this. According to the research, the procedure used to inactivate the virus was not effective.

We determined that the procedure used by this manufacturer to inactivate SV40 in oral poliovirus vaccine seed stocks based on heat inactivation in the presence of MgCl2 did not completely inactivate SV40. These SV40-contaminated vaccines were produced from early 1960s to about 1978 and were used throughout the world. Our findings underscore the potential risks of using primary monkey cells for preparing poliovirus vaccines, because of the possible contamination with SV40 or other monkey viruses, and emphasize the importance of using well-characterized cell substrates that are free from adventitious agents.

Sarah, the Healthy Home Economist, broke the story yesterday. She wrote:

This story is not new ? many of of us who thoroughly researched the vaccination issue before choosing whether or not to immunize were already aware of this fact years ago.

I became aware of the tainted polio vaccines from 1955-1963 in the late 1990?s and it was one of the primary motivators for me to choose a ?no shots, no way? approach for my children.

What?is?new is that the CDC is finally admitting it.

What took you so long CDC? Many of the folks vaccinated with the tainted polio stock are already?dead?from cancer with many more getting diagnosed each and every day! (source)

Much like today, parents then were terrified and guilted into providing their child with the polio vaccine. By doing so, they may have saved that child from polio but sentenced them to a different early death from cancer. Up to 30 million people may have been affected by this vaccine that was forced upon them by the government. And the thing is, no amount of parental research can protect a child from something like this ? if a substance is injected into your child, you have to take it on faith as to the ingredients in that hypodermic needle. Do you really trust the government and Big Pharma with your child?s life?

The most frightening part of all is that in many parts of the world, this vaccine was mandatory. Much like the people forced to take a flu shot to retain their jobs, children forced to take a series of vaccinations to attend school, or a host of other ?health benefits? being foisted upon us, a deadly virus was injected into millions of kids around the world, whether they wanted it or not. Let this be a lesson as you listen to the pediatrician tell you about the mandatory shots they want to give to your child ? the HPV, the childhood immunization series, and the annual flu shot. Don?t forget those?shots that are rushed to market?in the face of some horrible epidemic. Anything could be in those little vials and 50 years down the road, your children might discover that they too were poisoned, whether through a tragic laboratory mistake, a deliberate?depopulation maneuver, or even a twisted human experiment.

And who is being held accountable for this? Who is going to jail for committing murder on such a massive scale? Who is being charged with negligence for allowing this to happen? Who is being taken to task for making this toxic vaccine mandatory?

Oh?as usual?.no one.

Delivered by The Daily Sheeple

---

Contributed by Daisy Luther of The Organic Prepper.

Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor. Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca

Please share: Spread the word to sheeple far and wide

Leave A Comment...
The Daily Sheeple Home Page

---

Source: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/tragic-mistake-or-deliberate-plan-30-million-people-injected-with-mandatory-vaccination-containing-live-sv40-cancer-virus_072013

jason wu Mavericks Surf Stonewall Inaugural Ball julio jones j crew san francisco 49ers

Former Temple Israel development to get underway by September

At their meeting on Monday, July 15, the Planning Board approved a definitive subdivision plan for development of the former Temple Israel. The Humphrey Street development will consist of 14 small houses, which will be situated on a new road named after development company, Atlantic Crossing.

An initial approval was made in June. Final approval required the interval of a 20-day appeal period, but none were forthcoming.

?It?s procedural at this point,? Planning Board Chairman Angela Ippolito said.

A suggestion made in April by Atlantic Crossing that two of the houses in the development face Humphrey Street were discarded after objections were raised by the Planning Board.

?Everything is inside the subdivision,? Ippolito said Monday. ?Two driveways were going to be on Humphrey, but the developers agreed with us and changed their minds.?

Developers hope to start work soon after final approval of the project by the Board of Selectmen, scheduled for their meeting Wednesday, July 17.

?We?ll be starting very shortly, certainly by September,? Atlantic Crossing development project manager Bill Luster said. ?Sales activity has been strong. There?s been a lot of interest and we?re very pleased about that.?

In April, the developers explained that their plan was to first build the homes that have been sold, then a spec home, and then wait to construct the remaining homes until they are purchased. Multiple lots have already been reserved, Luster said in April. The town has set a cap of three years for construction.

"We really believe it?s a two-year project," Luster said in April.

At the Special Town Meeting in October 2012, members approved a change in the zoning bylaw to allow the construction of 14 small homes on the site of the former Temple Israel, located at 835 Humphrey St.

The project involves using the portion of the site that faces Humphrey Street, and leaving the portion of the parking lot that faces Atlantic Avenue as is.

"That portion of the parking lot is privately owned and not part of the project," Luster said at a meeting in April.

The developers proposed building three different styles of homes, each with a two-car garage, and multiple bathrooms and bedrooms. The homes will sell for anywhere between $500,000 and $600,000, said Michael Callahan, the developer?s attorney, during the initial presentation last summer.

"We wanted the house prices to be in keeping with the area," Luster said.

?

Source: http://www.wickedlocal.com/swampscott/news/x606641993/Former-Temple-Israel-development-to-get-underway-by-September?rssfeed=true

Isaac Hurricane earthquake san diego Hurricane Isaac Sam Claflin Tony Farmer West Nile virus symptoms snooki

Daily What?! WWI Battleship in Union Square

We came across this postcard on Ebay recently and despite our knowledge of vintage New York, we were surprised. Why would a battleship be in Union Square? And, perhaps more importantly, how did it get there?

The postcard supposedly dates back to 1922. It turns out that this ship, dubbed the ?USS Recruit,? was actually a wooden mockup of a battleship, used during World War I to recruit soldiers in Manhattan. From 1917 until the end of the war, the?Recruit sat in Union Square, one of the city?s busiest areas at the time, and was apparently responsible for encouraging approximately 25,000?New Yorkers to enlist.

Following the war, the?Recruit was dismantled and slated to be moved to Coney Island. However, no documents exist that confirm that this was what actually happened. No one knows where the?Recruit disappeared to.

In case you still don?t believe it, a real photo of the Recruit! Source: Gizmodo

If you like this story, think about buying the postcard. It?s going for a hefty $15.50, but you?ll get to own a rare document that depicts this seriously quirky moment in Manhattan history!

Get in touch with the author @YiinYangYale.

Source: http://untappedcities.com/2013/07/17/daily-what-wwi-battleship-in-union-square/

Olympics closing ceremony PGA Championship 2012 John Witherspoon george michael usain bolt Closing Ceremony London 2012 Tom Daley

From Tom Paine to Glenn Greenwald, we need partisan journalism

By Jack Shafer

(Reuters) - I would sooner engage you in a week-long debate over which taxonomical subdivision the duck-billed platypus belongs to then spend a moment arguing whether Glenn Greenwald is a journalist or not, or whether an activist can be a journalist, or whether a journalist can be an activist, or how suspicious we should be of partisans in the newsroom.

It's not that those arguments aren't worthy of time, just not mine. I'd rather judge a work of journalism directly than run the author's mental drippings through a gas chromatograph to detect whether his molecules hang left or right or cling to the center. In other words, I care less about where a journalist is coming from than to where his journalism takes me.

Greenwald's collaborations with source Edward Snowden, which resulted in Page One scoops in the Guardian newspaper about the U.S. National Security Agency, caused such a rip in the time-space-journalism continuum that the question soon went from whether Greenwald's lefty style of journalism could be trusted to whether he belonged in a jail cell.

Last month, New York Times business journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin called for the arrest of Greenwald (he later apologized) and "Meet the Press" host David Gregory asked with a straight face if he shouldn't "be charged with a crime." NBC's Chuck Todd and the Washington Post?s Walter Pincus and Paul Farhi also asked if Greenwald hadn't shape-shifted himself to some non-journalistic precinct with his work.

The reactions by Sorkin, Gregory, Todd, Pincus, Farhi, and others betray (dare I say it? ) a sad devotion to the corporatist ideal of what journalism can be and, (I don't have any problem saying it) a painful lack of historical understanding of American journalism. You don't have to be a scholar or a historian to appreciate the hundreds of flavors our journalism has come in over the centuries. Just fan the pages of Christopher B. Daly's book "Covering America: A Narrative History of a Nation's Journalism" for yourself. American journalism began in earnest as a rebellion against the state, and just about the only people asking if its practitioners belonged in jail were those beholden to the British overlords. Or consider the pamphleteers, most notably Tom Paine, whose unsigned screed "Common Sense" 'shook the world', as Daly put it.

Untangling the Revolutionary War press from Revolutionary War politics proves impossible, as James Rivington, publisher of the pro-Crown New York Gazetteer understood implicitly. Rivington left the city when the rebels swept in and returned when the British drove them out, Daly wrote. A Philadelphia publisher merely changed his newspaper's political stripes depending on which army held sway.

Judith and William Serrin's anthology, "Muckraking: The Journalism That Changed America", establishes the primacy of partisan, activist journalism from the revolutionary period through the modern era. Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison battled slavery in the 1830s with his newspaper, the Liberator. Elijah Lovejoy performed similar service in the Alton Observer, and in 1837 an Illinois mob attacked and killed him for his anti-slavery journalism. Beginning in the 1840s, Frederick Douglass used the press to fight for the freedom of his people, later writing, "It did not entirely satisfy me to narrate wrongs; I felt like denouncing them." Imagine the Sorkins, Gregorys, Todds, Pincuses, and Farhis of those days telling Douglass he was doing journalism wrong!

No politically contentious issue has ever escaped the eye and the pen of partisan and activists journalists. Labor journalist John Swinton used his press to campaign for working people in 1884. Helen Hunt Jackson confronted the treatment of American Indians in 1885. John Muir defended the Yosemite Valley from the timber industry in 1890. Jacob Riis recorded tenement poverty in "How the Other Half Lives" in 1890. And Ida B. Wells exposed the South's causal lynching practices in 1892.

The muckrakers of the new century revealed Standard Oil's bullying ways, political corruption in cities, the states, and the U.S. Capitol; patent-medicine and insurance swindles; unhealthful food; the sale of convicts to contractors; and more. In later decades, the communist press (yes, the communist press) alerted readers to the perils of silicosis and campaigned against color-line in Major League Baseball. The photographs of Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration in the late 1930s and Margaret Bourke-White for Life magazine in the 1930s and 1940s provided a window on poverty.

From the end of World War II until the civil rights movement began its ascension, the partisan and activist journalism faded but didn't disappear, its practice crimped perhaps by the so-called "Great Consensus" that had evolved, as Daly wrote in "Covering America". Part of its demise can be attributed to changing social attitudes. To write against segregation in the 1950s marked you in many corners as a disruptive partisan or activist, not a journalist. By the time the civil rights protests became a TV miniseries, to write in support of segregation made you suspect. After the March on Washington in 1963, support of full citizenship for African-Americans was the default mode for the mainstream press. In other words, the once-radical became the norm, and after it did, those who criticized American apartheid in the approved language were no longer marginalized as activist or partisan journalists.

In the 1960s, the best opinionated, fact-based journalism appeared in such books as Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" (1962), Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique" (1963), Jessica Mitford's "The American Way of Death" (1963), Michael Harrington's "The Other America" (1963), and Ralph Nader's "Unsafe at Any Speed" (1965).

The lefties at Ramparts magazine broke stories on Michigan State University fronting for the CIA (1966), the use of napalm in Vietnam (1966), and the CIA funding of the National Student Association (1967). Later revelations in the early to mid-1970s by the New York Times and the Washington Post (and others) about the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, and intelligence agency abuses were, at their root, as partisan as any of the NSA investigations Glenn Greenwald has contributed.

Remember, as Christopher B. Daly recently pointed out, Daniel Ellsberg chose to leak the Pentagon Papers to New York Times reporter Neil Sheehan because he (1) trusted Sheehan from their years in Vietnam, and (2) had recently read a long essay-review Sheenan had written for the paper's book section titled "Should We Have War Crime Trials?" As Daly writes, "Three months later, Sheehan wrote the first front-page article in the series that became known as the Pentagon Papers."

I could continue my honor roll of partisan journalism through the ages, Ms. magazine cultural critiques, muckraking by the Village Voice and other alt-weeklies, Mark Dowie's piece in Mother Jones on the exploding Ford Pinto (1977), the Progressive magazine's H-bomb expose (1979), the overtly techno-libertarianism of the Louis Rossetto-era Wired magazine, and skipping to very fast-forward, Jeremy Scahill's book "Blackwater" (2008), David Corn's "Romney tape" (2012), and Radley Balko's new book about the SWATing of America, "Rise of the Warrior Cop". But I think you get my drift.

My paean to activist and partisan journalism does not include the output of the columnists and other hacks who arrange their copy to please their Democratic or Republican Party patrons. (You know who you are.)

Nor do I favor the partisan journalists who insult reader intelligence by cherry-picking the evidence, debate-club style, to win the day for their comrades. Read a few of the articles I cite above and then ask yourself: Where would we be without our partisan journalists?

(Jack Shafer is a Reuters columnist but his opinions are his own.)

(Jack Shafer)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tom-paine-glenn-greenwald-partisan-journalism-001618555.html

game 7 ray allen Zara Calgary flooding Kate Upton Topless summer solstice tahiti