Somebody Is Sponsoring A Push Poll On Fracking And Oil In North Dakota

Tweet

Written By:
Rob Port

Oct 2, 2011
1:12am

I’ve spoken with a couple of readers over the weekend who report that they’ve been polled by the Harris polling company about fracking in recent weeks. One of the readers told me that he asked the pollster he spoke with who was sponsoring the poll, but the pollster declined to respond.

One of the questions asked, however, was if the respondents had ever heard of Earth First (described by Wikipedia as “a radical environmental advocacy group”) and the Dakota Resource Council (which, along with Earth First, receives funding from the Tides Foundation). So that might give us a clue as to who is behind the polling.

I’d be interested to know if any of you readers have received calls on this poll. If so, please comment below or email me at rob@sayanythingblog.com.

All of the people who told me they got calls said that they felt the questions were a little pushy. They were asked initially if they approved or disapproved of fracking. Then they were run through a series of questions such as “did you know fracking has been linked to contaminated ground water,” at the end of which they were asked if they still approved of fracking.

Which is pretty much the definition of a push poll. Polls like this aren’t intended to measure public sentiment. They’re intended to influence public sentiment both by influencing the poll respondent and reaching a desired outcome from the poll the reporting of which will influence the public at large.

It’s interesting to watch the confluence of attacks on energy production in North Dakota which has cropped up in recent months. The attack on fracking has been alive for some time now. The Dakota Resource Council has backed an activist campaign against Public Service Commissioners Kevin Cramer and Brian Kalk over the permitting of a new coal mine in the state. An Obama-appointed US Attorney straight from the Democrat National Committee has filed absurd criminal charges against several oil companies over dead birds, with three of the companies being responsible for only one dead bird each.

Now environmentalists are making a stink about natural gas flaring in the state, and we have a push poll about fracking.

Is it any coincidence that all this is happening after North Dakota has been making national headlines about its energy production, and how that energy production is allowing the state to become a bright spot in this time of national economic malaise?

Someone a bit more conspiracy-minded than me might suggest that North Dakota and its economic success has become a bit too inconvenient for certain local and national political interests.