Times Reporter Faces Questions Over Fracking Story

NYT Reporter Faces Allegations of Serious Misconduct

Now it looks like the Times will have to answer for yet another deceiving reporter on its payroll. The Franklin Center today launched a broadside against NYT reporter Ian Urbina for his work on “fracking,” work that had a tremendous and negative impact on the natural gas industry. The Franklin Center’s letter alleges that Urbina engaged in a great deal of wrongdoing in his reporting:

...The reports relied heavily on several industry critics whose credentials appear now to have been described in a misleading and inaccurate manner. Furthermore, Urbina left the impression with readers that a much broader cross section of government officials and experts were sourced in the report, when in fact his reports were based primarily on the opinions of three critics whose motivations and biases raise serious questions about their credibility...

The letter points out that a litany of Times’ standards were violated by Urbina, including failure to “distinguish conscientiously between high-level and lower level executives or officials” and a prohibition against dissembling about sources. In the case of C. Hobson Bryan III, Urbina sources him as “one official,” an “energy analyst,” and “one federal analyst,” without disclosing that these three sources are one in the same.  Nor does Urbina inform readers that Bryan held two low-level positions with the Department of Energy – intern and, later, Junior Engineer; instead, he gives the impression that Bryan was a qualified official in a position to know.

In another instance, Urbina failed to disclose that one of his sources, Art Berman, is a paid consultant to numerous companies and interests that are in direct competition with the shale gas industry. He was identified by Urbina as an industry insider.

Deborah Rogers was presented as a financial industry professional. In fact, she’s an organic goat farmer involved in a bitter dispute with the natural gas industry.

Business as usual at the New York Times.  The Franklin Center’s entire nine-page letter is here.