UPDATE (3/26/2018 5:40 PM EST)

Shortly after EID blogged on Friday about Cleveland Scene’s misleading and disrespectful depiction of southeastern Ohio as a fracking ‘horror story,’ the reporter responsible for the piece took to Twitter to respond to a flood of complaints received from locals and elected officials regarding the “alternative” weekly newspaper’s use of “alternative” facts.

Most notably, reporter Sam Allard acknowledged that the notion shale development is somehow turning Buckeye State rabbits into glass was not “scientifically correct.”

The piece was framed as a dispatch, the sights and sounds (and indeed, the anecdotes) as I experienced them that day. Things like a rabbit turning to glass are of course not scientifically correct. But that’s how it was conveyed to me, word for word, in fact.

— Sam Allard (@SceneSallard) March 24, 2018

He also admitted that the tour of Ohio shale country, hosted by Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dennis Kucinich, was “designed to show us the worst of the worst” and that the Kucinich had used the issue of fracking to give the reporter “exclusive” access to an Ohio gubernatorial candidate. In other words, the piece was the complete opposite of real journalism. But hey, don’t take our word for it, here’s exactly what the reporter said on Twitter in response to @EIDAppalachian:

The tour itself, as you can imagine, was designed to show us the worst of the worst in terms of fracking infrastructure. That I concede. I also concede that I did not speak to industry sources or elected officials.

— Sam Allard (@SceneSallard) March 24, 2018

After the tour, I admit I’m much more inclined to see the negative effects of the industrial development, but I understand that there’s a competing viewpoint — I just happen to find it immensely less compelling, and also promoted by the forces that most benefit from it.

— Sam Allard (@SceneSallard) March 24, 2018

Original Post  (3/23/2018)

Oh, do we love to talk about how the people of Appalachia are fighting back against overtly political efforts to exploit the region. And here we go again, as local residents have lambasted the Cleveland Scene, an “alternative” weekly newspaper, for its recently published article headlined “Dennis Kucinich Finds Fracking Facts in Southeast Ohio: A Horror Story.”

Much like Rolling Stone, the Cleveland Scene should really stick to its normal coverage of arts, dining, and music, because it’s clear that any other form of “journalism” is just too much for this paper to handle.

To put it mildly, the Cleveland Scene’s coverage of Kucinich, an Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former “Moonbeam Congressman,” is so comically over-the-top that it reads like an article from The Onion. But the piece is actually not a parody at all, showing how incredibly arrogant and ignorant Kucinich and this publication are, not to mention wholly disrespectful to the people of Appalachia. But hey, when an urban weekly arts and dining newspaper berates our nation’s veterans as “ex-military men… conscripted into security jobs for the energy companies,” would we expect anything less?

In a nutshell the article basically tells the tale of Kucinich riding around Appalachia Ohio to see the so-called “horror story” fracking has caused. The ridiculous Cleveland Scene article states,

“Then came the shocking stories, with accompanying images, of scuzzy and sometimes flammable water. There was the anecdote from a man near Cambridge who claimed he had to buy six new pairs of Carharrt boots in six months because the mud was chewing through the rubber soles.”

For the record, the author is referring to Carhartt boots, not Carharrt, but with all the other inaccuracies here, who’s counting. The rest of the editorializing went like this,

“That the farm animals could no longer be persuaded to drink the water was a given — much of this land would never be farm-able again. But what of the cow that had been born with two heads? What of the two men who’d mysteriously died baling hay outside a compressor station in Noble County? The cause of death in one case, according to our local guide: a toxic liver.”

The article somehow ends with an even stranger statement from the “horror story” road show, stating that the oil and gas industry has actually “turned a rabbit to glass.”

In response, here are just a few of the best comments from the people who actually live and work in the region to being incredibly disrespected by both Kucinich and the Cleveland Scene in this absurd misrepresentation of Appalachia and shale development.

Top Five Best Cleveland Scene Burns

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

Honorable Mention

As Ohio’s Democratic primary election draws near, Kucinich and his 15 minutes of newfound fame are winding down, as his failed strategy to use fracking as a red herring has doomed his campaign. Ohio voters have made it abundantly clear that they support oil and natural gas development, and for Appalachia, shale is in fact the greatest economic hope that the region has realized in decades.