TNT’s ‘Rizzoli & Isles’ Demonizes Fracking
The new villain, same as the old villain, but with a twist.
TNT
continued the Hollywood practice of condemning oil and gas in
its June 12 episode of “Rizzoli & Isles.” The plot featured an
ex-Blackwater agent, masquerading as a yoga guru, who kills a vegan
student and a professor in order to hide his drilling for natural gas
from shale. This episode was a triple decker for left-wing stereotypes.
The
professor that was murdered had condemned hydraulic fracturing, also
known as fracking, in a video saying, “fracking is an invasive way to
extract natural gas. Proponents say it will liberate the U.S. from
dependence on foreign oil. But, my research indicates it will destroy
the environment.”
One
of the two main characters, medical examiner Dr. Isles reinforces that
idea later in the episode saying, “they pump hundreds of chemicals
thousands of feet underground. It pollutes groundwater.” Even the
villain ominously tells Detective Rizzoli and Dr. Isles (after tying
them in their car, which is parked on a spillway) saying, “a few million
gallons of water’s gonna come pouring through here. It’s pretty toxic,
from all the fracking.”
The
clear anti-fracking statements throughout the show are not new for
Hollywood, and they leave out important facts. Researchers from the
University of Texas at Austin recently concluded that “there is no evidence”
of polluted drinking water caused by fracking. EPA administrator Lisa
Jackson even told the Ithaca Journal, “We have absolutely no indication
now that drinking water is at risk.”
The
liberal news media, which has been anti-oil industry for years, has
also portrayed fracking for natural gas in a negative light. The New
York Times even had to print a correction in May 2011 after it
overstated criticism of the practice. They were forced to admit “There
are few documented cases [of water pollution], not numerous ones.”
The American Petroleum Institute
has written that fracking fluid is made up of about 90 percent water,
9.5 percent sand. According to the director of the Armstrong Center for
Energy & the Environment at the Texas Public Policy Foundation,
Kathleen Hartnett White, only 0.5 percent “is a mix, not of ‘596
chemicals’ but of just a few, such as guar gum, and emulsifier commonly
used in ice cream. And remember: these chemicals are diluted in millions
of gallons of water.”
