| Tuesday,
May 1, 2007
NPR to Bay County: Never Let The
Facts Get In The Way Of A “Driveway Moment”
I knew the facts were in trouble when I
heard the National Public Radio (NPR) reporter describe
the Florida Panhandle “from Tallahassee to Pensacola”
as “The Forgotten Coast.”
I’m sure that’s news to folks
in Destin, on the Beaches of South Walton or in Panama City
Beach during spring break. After all, our white sand beaches
attract about 8 – 10 million visitors each year, making
our region the second largest tourist market in Florida.
Forgotten indeed. But if you
are NPR – and you’re going for a so-called "Driveway
Moment" – you’ve got to grab the listener’s
attention and set the scene.
It’s good storytelling, but let’s
not confuse that with news.
Earlier this week, NPR reporter
Greg
Allen produced a three-part series on the St. Joe Company
and development in the Panhandle. The first two pieces were
riddled with errors and bias. I found the inaccuracies irritating,
but harmless enough.
However, the third piece (“Developer
a Key Player in Airport Fight”) was so poorly reported
I had to comment. Allen’s piece amounted to a hit
job on the new airport, and he relied primarily on incorrect,
discredited information.
Meanwhile, Allen ignored the
local experts who didn’t fit into the predictable
story he had decided to tell – and in the most incredible
feat of all, he completely ignored the five-year FAA process
that resulted in the FAA’s
Record of Decision to relocate the airport.
So, in addition to calling the entire Florida
Panhandle “The Forgotten Coast,” here’s
how Greg Allen got it wrong.
The Real Legal Battle
Allen says: “…there’s
a legal battle going on in the Panhandle…” Wrong.
The only legal battle at the moment is in New York City.
The NRDC
filed for an administrative review of the FAA’s Record
of Decision in a New York court – but Allen doesn’t
mention this. Why did the NRDC file for the review in New
York and not Florida? Were they venue shopping? And by the
way, the FAA has prevailed on 23 of 24 administrative reviews
of other projects.
Allen also fails to mention that the Bay
County Commission, the Airport Authority and The St. Joe
Company have prevailed on all previous legal actions taken
by airport opponents. In fact, the Bay County Commission
has said it intends to sue to recover legal expenses for
having to defend “frivolous” challenges filed
by one opponent.
But the real legal battle is being pushed
(and financed) by the NRDC. They don’t even warrant
a mention in Allen's story. I suspect it’s because
Allen doesn't mind helping the New York City-based NRDC
frame the fight as courageous locals fighting a big bad
developer. So NRDC pushes out groups like Friends of PFN
as if they’re leading the legal battle. But Friends
of PFN have an agenda - they are a group of local hobby
pilots who don’t want to lose the convenience of their
neighborhood recreational airport.
Where’s the
FAA?
At the very end of this story
about airport relocation (as published on the NPR
web site) Allen writes, almost as an aside, “Although
the FAA has given its approval, many obstacles remain…”
It’s the only mention of the FAA in the entire piece.
I suppose that’s one way you could
sum up five years of the FAA’s extensive analysis
and review. But in the old days reporters typically included
accounts of official government actions and reviews.
The FAA spent five years preparing an Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) for the project. The team conducting
the EIS had a combined 690 years of professional experience
across 20 disciplines. This process generated more than
2,000 pages of analysis, including 350 analytic charts,
tables and maps and detailed responses to thousands of public
comments.
In completing the EIS, the FAA coordinated
its work with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, which participated
as a cooperating agency. Additionally, the FAA sought comments
from and responded to dozens of federal, state and local
agencies on various aspects of the potential environmental
impacts of the proposed project.
It’s hard to accept that an objective
reporter would ignore the entire process and analysis that
led the FAA to issue the Record of Decision to relocate
the airport.
Consider the Source
Allen wants to make his environmental case
against the airport so whom does he interview? Not a local
environmentalist. No, he interviews a local retired “airline
executive.”
But why interview a retired “airline
executive”? Why not one of the dozens of local environmentalists
who have worked for the past ten years on issues concerning
the protection of West Bay and who have participated in
the community discussion of the relocation of the airport?
Why not interview Dr. Neil Lamb, president of the local
Audubon chapter? Why not interview Dr. Ed Keppner, who has
spent years walking and studying every inch of West Bay?
Why not interview John Robert Middlemas, one of the most
respected environmentalists in the state?
I’ll tell you why – because
Allen needed a specific quote to make his story work, and
the only place he could get it was from our local retired
“airline executive.”
The fact is the project has
significant environmental support.
The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
Just to make sure he’s thrown every
accusation he can find, Allen says:
“In September, a new wrinkle emerged
in the opposition when scientists reported sightings of
an ivory-billed woodpecker — a species thought to
be extinct — in an area not far from the proposed
airport.”
Even Dr.
Geoffrey Hill, the scientist who reported spotting the
Ivory-Bill, says he has no reason to believe the relocated
airport will harm the Ivory-Bill, if it is there. Here’s
what he said in a letter
to the Northwest Florida Management District. Just another
inconvenient fact ignored.
Storytelling, Not
Truth-telling
It’s sad, really. I’ve always
enjoyed NPR, and I always thought they had one of the nation’s
finest news organizations. But it seems that in their determination
to adapt to the age of satellite radio, webcasts and Podcasts,
storytelling has become more important than truth-telling.
Find the facts that fit the story, and ignore
the rest.
The next time I hear them selling NPR “Driveway
Moments”, I’ll know what was lost in the transaction.
Posted by Ed Wright at 8:44
PM
Presented by Dr. Ed Wright
Panama City, Florida, US
View
my complete profile
Site Disclaimer
The opinion's expressed in this blog belong to Ed Wright.
The facts belong to us all. The reader is trusted to recognize
the difference. Send any comments or feedback to westbayflorida@gmail.com
Article
Link
|
