Associate Editor Gil Smart column “Drilling into a bubble” observes:
“The gas boom throughout portions of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia has brought great riches to many. It’s brought dropping natural gas prices for those who rely on it. It’s brought health problems and more to guys like Headley, and he’s by no means the only one.
“The question no one seems to ask is: How is any of this sustainable?
“The Marcellus Shale gas rush is pretty much the exact opposite of a sober, well-thought-out, long-term proposal. We are in pure bubble mode. The state’s regulatory touch has been astonishingly light, even though it’s become quite clear we won’t know the true health consequences of the fracking boom for decades to come. The boom has undeniably brought jobs and invigorated communities, but — here’s another question no one asks — for how long?”
WATCHDOG: Two wags of the tail! This is an article with extraordinary insight. The tragedy of modern journalism is that the likes of Gil Smart cannot be given a three month assignment with one or two research assistants to dig into his misgivings and the politics of the situation.
This actually would take probably a $200,000 budget, something that even the Philadelphia Inquirer, recently exiting bankruptcy, can no longer afford.
Only paid Internet subscriptions can create competition among the Inquirer, the Patriot-News and the Pittsburgh newspapers to justify such investment to lure readers. This is more likely to take place on a national and international rather than a statewide basis.
Without in depth reporting by reporters such as Bill Keisling and Gil Smart, how is the pubic to be protected from predators?
Gil Smart (and every other Sunday News staff person) has a whole week to research a single article. For that they should be paid $200,000 and have one or two research assistants????
Marv can’t print enough coupons to pay that kind of freight!!!
EDITOR: The point was that it would cost a big city newspapers perhaps $200,000 to have a top reporter with research aids spending several months conducting a major investigation. In the past, this was often done to break an important story.