Of course they did

The Tarrant Regional Water District voted to open a drive-in theatre as part of the Trinity River Vision, you know, that "flood control" project downtown.

Don't worry, there is finally one aspect of this billion plus dollar boondoggle they say you aren't paying for.

You should read the comments from THE PEOPLE on some of these articles and Facebook. 

Priceless.

Don't kid yourself, YOU are still paying. 

 What a crock.  In June 2010, as Carl Bell faced foreclosure on LaGrave Field, the TRWD sweeps to his rescue with a $17.5 million gift by buying his parking lot.  His parking lot!  Of course, according to the always reliably forthright TRWD board, these 42 acres were direly needed for flood control for the futuristic boondoggle known as Trinity River Vision. 

Now stuck with a bankrupt LaGrave Field and FW Cats, the TRWD is saddled with a $17.5 million environmentally contaminated parking lot.  What can you do with a contaminated parking lot?  Why, put up a few screens and call it a drive-in theater.  Surely there will be enough suckers brave enough to shell out a few bucks to experience the thrill of making it home alive after spending a few hours after dark huddled in a car in this neighborhood, feasting on breakfast burritos from the handy dandy food truck. 

How many will come?  Well, according to the mathematically challenged scion of that truth in government pinup girl, Congresswoman Kay Granger, over 300,000 annually.  Really now?  That's over 800 a night every night all year.  Even when it's 110 in July and August.  Even when it's 32 in March.  But never mind.  JD said it so it must be true and the ST dutifully reports it as Gospel.  Welcome to the future of Fort Worth and the bold Trinity River Vision: environmentally contaminated drive-in theaters!  Please turn off your headlights.  You'll be glowing in the dark anyway.

Read More

To Preserve Our Rights, We Must Stand Up For Them

by Josh Fox on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 

This morning, the charge of "unlawful entry" brought against me was dismissed without condition.   The US Attorney dropped the case, finding it baseless and without merit.  Although this is a personal victory and I am very grateful and relieved at the US Attorney's decision, it serves as a painful reminder that we do not have rights unless we exercise them .

On February 1st, I was arrested, briefly jailed, and charged with "unlawful entry" for attempting to film a public hearing in the Science, Space and Technology committee.  I did not enter unlawfully, I lined up outside just as everyone else did and walked in when the room opened.  I set up my tripod and camera where cameras normally are set up in that particular hearing room and I was calm and peaceful.  I did not disrupt the hearing nor did I intend to do so.   I believed I was within my first amendment rights, as a journalist and filmmaker.  I was reporting on a case that is intensely personal to me, that I have been following for 3 years. 

The House had convened a hearing in the House Energy and Environment subcommittee to challenge EPAs findings that hydraulic fracturing fluids had contaminated groundwater in the town of Pavillion, Wyoming. I have a long history with the town of Pavillion and its residents who have maintained since 2008 that fracking has contaminated their water supply. I featured the stories of residents John Fenton, Louis Meeks and Jeff Locker in GASLAND and I have continued to document the catastrophic water contamination in Pavillion for the upcoming sequel GASLAND 2. It was clear that Republican leadership, including Chairman Andy Harris of Maryland, who ordered my arrest, was using this hearing to attack the three year Region 8 EPA investigation involving hundreds of samples and extensive water testing which ruled that Pavillion’s groundwater was a health hazard, contaminated by benzene at 50x the safe level and numerous other contaminants associated with gas drilling. Most importantly, EPA stated in this case that fracking was the likely cause.

When I was being led out of Congress in handcuffs, Representative Paul Tonko, Democracy of New York shouted out "This is the People's House!" in disgust.  Representative Brad Miller of North Carolina, moved to suspend the rules so that we could continue to film the proceedings stating "All god's children should be allowed to film this hearing!"  It was a surreal moment.   Later that day, Congressman Maurice Hinchey would write, "This is blatant censorship and a shameful stain on this Congress."

 But if it is not now the "People's House", it is now, more than ever the "people's media".  I was able to watch my own arrest on youtube because members of the audience filmed it and posted their videos.  It was the citizen journalism that first documented people lighting their water on fire in gas fracking areas.  It was citizen journalism that posted videos of the recent mass arrest of peaceful protestors in New York and in California.  The people's media is our system of accountability and transparency and we must continue to practice it.

 The First Amendment to the Constitution states explicitly “Congress shall make no law…that infringes on the Freedom of the Press”. Which means that no subcommittee rule or regulation should prohibit a respectful journalist or citizen from recording a public hearing.

I have huge respect for those who make the immense personal sacrifice to do public service and represent their constituents and the American people.  I believe we elect our representatives with good will and trust and the hopes that they serve us honestly and respectfully and I believe that we, as citizens, send them to Congress with love, pride and well wishes for the future of the nation.  However, I have no respect for or deference to those who would misuse the power granted them by the American people to upend the institutions of democratic government and the rights of the citizenship they have ben sworn to uphold for private gain, political leverage or because they are beholden to corporate influence or corrosive ideology.

The people of Pavillion deserve better. The thousands across the US who have documented cases of water contamination in fracking areas deserve their own hearing on Capitol Hill. They deserve the chance to testify before Congress. The truth that fracking contaminates groundwater is out, and no amount of intimidation tactics –either outright challenges to science or the arrest of journalists –will put the genie back in the bottle. Such a brazen attempt to discredit and silence the EPA, the citizens of Pavillion and documentary filmmaking will ultimately fail and it is an affront to the health and integrity of Americans.

We cannot take our democracy and the rights of our citizenship for granted.  Democracy is not handed to us from on high or guaranteed to us by battles fought by our ancestors.  It is perpetually under siege by those with power, money and influence who would rather our nation of laws becomes a nation of affiliation.  It is clear to me that I was arrested to serve the interests of oil and gas companies, whose interests often run counter to those of ordinary American citizens.

I was arrested because I refused to turn off my camera at a public hearing in the US congress.  I have filmed hundreds of public hearings around the country and the first amendment guarantees my ability to report on what happens in public. 

And I continue to refuse.  I refuse to let Congressmen blatantly attack science in the the Science committee without the light of the media shining out their transgressions.  I refuse to be silenced and not report on the misdeeds of those representatives who are clearly influenced by oil and gas companies beyond loyalty to their own citizen's health.  I refuse to stand down and let oil and gas companies lie about what they are injecting into the ground and emitting into the air.  I refuse to let the bill of rights collapse under the weight of a 250 million dollar lobbying campaign.  I refuse to let money, power and influence define the next American century over the will of the people.  I refuse to turn of my camera and sit idly by as huge areas in 34 states become sacrificial drilling zones.  I refuse to turn my back on the good and great people that have entrusted me with their stories of oil and gas contamination and walk away from the fight they have inspired me to wage on their behalf.  I refuse to let the oil and gas industry bury their cancerous secrets for us to unwittingly drink.  I refuse to bow and walk out of congress leaving it to the influence of those with money to peddle in its halls.  I refuse to relinquish my understanding of the law and of justice. I refuse to surrender my citizenship and my dignity, head bowed in submission, to the influence of corporate power. I refuse to forsake the American dream of the many for the financial gain of the nationless few.  I refuse to walk away, from my home and my country.

The fact that my case was dismissed so readily only attests to the ridiculousness and unfairness of my arrest, the US attorney has refused to pursue it.

I woke up one morning and declared myself a journalist.  I had to.  My home was under siege by the gas fracking industry.  I felt that I had to not only seek out the true effects of the largest natural gas drilling campaign in history on public health and the environment but also to report what I found to my community. 

The first amendment states that anyone can do the same.  Anyone can wake up in the morning, declare themselves a journalist and enjoy the protections of the First Amendment.   In the era of instant media, youtube and social networks, this becomes even more relevant and exciting; anyone with an iphone can rock the world.  It was citizen journalists who first posted police pepper spraying peaceful protestors in New York and California and it was citizen distribution that virally spread those horrific videos of police brutality until the whole world was infected with the truth of what is happening in the USA today.  It was citizen journalists who first documented water catching on fire at the kitchen sink as a result of gas fracking.  It was citizen journalists who woke up one morning and decided to show the water contamination and air pollution due to gas drilling in Texas, Wyoming, Pennsylvania and in states across the nation.

This year we have seen severe repression of journalism in America.  Hundreds of journalists have been arrested this year simply trying to do their jobs.  Whether they were covering oil and gas issues or issues of economic inequality during the Occupy demonstrations. 

"Recently, Reporters Without Borders released its 2011–2012 global Press Freedom Index.  Due to journalist arrests and press suppression at Occupy Wall Street-inspired protests, the United States has dropped significantly in the rankings of press freedom, from 27 to 47." Truthout reports.

Having personally witnessed the outrageous police brutality and repression which was an unwarranted response to occupy protests and to citizens who were acting in defense of their towns and neighborhoods against gas fracking and other egregious human rights violations as the result of fossil fuel development, I feel it is necessary to stand with all of those who have had enough of inequality and enough of big business having undue influence over the government.

So please accept my invitation, and the First Amendment's authorization, to declare yourself a member of the Press.  Declare yourself a witness to history and a fighter for transparency and equality under the law.  And if you feel like it, go film a congressional hearing.  Don't bother to ask for permission, permission was just granted to you by the US Attorney.  You don't need credentials, you have your rights.  Assert them.

Josh Fox
2/12/15

p.s. I am very thankful to Reporters Without Borders, The Society of Environmental Journalists and the Independent Documentary Association and to the 30,000 people who signed the Working Families Party petition on my behalf and to all of my supporters for your help well wishes and statements of outrage and strength.  I am also very grateful to all of the reporters, news outlets and journalists who reported on this travesty.

Read More

Fort Worth's Top 15 List

Read Durango's Top 15 list.  Sad, but true. 

Do something about it. 

We won't give you the whole list, because YOU should read the whole post, but here are a few of our favorites.

I don't know if I can come up with 15 reasons Fort Worth is a strange city, but I will try...

1. The downtown park that celebrates Fort Worth's Heritage, and beginnings, is a boarded up, cyclone fence surrounded eyesore.
2. A billion dollars is being spent on a public works project to build a little lake, some canals, an un-needed flood diversion channel and other nonsensical things, in a Boondoggle called the Trinity River Vision that the public has not voted on.
3. The freeway exits to Fort Worth's top tourist attraction, the Fort Worth Stockyards, are un-landscaped, littered, weed infested eyesores.
9. Fort Worth is the world's experimental test tube for urban natural gas shale drilling, with more holes poked than any other city in the world.
12. Fort Worth allows Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats in the Trinity River in which raw sewage is known to flow.

Instead the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has not devoted any ink to doing any investigative reporting of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, the nepotism that gave J.D. Granger the job of running the project, J.D.'s mother Kay's use of earmarks to get federal funds for the project that gave her son a job or any of the other questionable aspects of the TRV Boondoggle that would be questioned by the newspaper in a town with a real newspaper.

Read More

WHAT?!

It doesn't matter which side of the aisle you sit on or which side of this particular fight you are on -   If this doesn't outrage you, you might be more like "them" then you think. 

From the Huffington Post:

In a stunning break with First Amendment policy, House Republicans directed Capitol Hill police to detain a highly regarded documentary crew that was attempting to film a Wednesday hearing on a controversial natural gas procurement practice.

Josh Fox, director of the Academy Award-nominated documentary "Gasland" was taken into custody by Capitol Hill police this morning, along with his crew, after Republicans objected to their presence, according to Democratic sources present at the hearing.

"It's an outrageous violation of the First Amendment," Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) told HuffPost. "Here we've got an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, and it's an important subject and the subject that he did his prior film on for HBO. And they put him in handcuffs and hauled him out of there. This is stunning."

"I found it ironic that there was not a flood of cameras there," noted Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.). "There was the one camera and then before that, the ABC camera ... if you have a camera there to bring the issue home to the public, that's a good thing."

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) told HuffPost, “I have served in the House of Representatives since 1992, and I had the privilege of chairing the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. In all that time, I cannot recall a chair of any committee or subcommittee having ever ordered the removal of a person who was filming a committee proceeding and not being disruptive, whether or not that person was accredited. It is a matter of routine that all sorts of people photograph and record our proceedings. Most of them are not accredited. I cannot recall anyone questioning their right to be there."

Arthur Spitzer, legal director of the ACLU in Washington, explained that "congressional committees routinely allow professional journalists to record hearings even when they don't have official press credentials, and excluding a journalist because he doesn't share the political views of the committee chair is outrageous. The Supreme Court has explained many times that censorship based on viewpoint is the clearest kind of First Amendment violation, and that seems to be what happened here."

Read the developing story and Josh Fox's response on the Huffington Post.  What was the charge?  Unlawful Entry.  To a public meeting??  How's that? 

Read More

Dallas Fort Worth Media

Please stop reporting on kids being transported at the Stock Show in strollers (duh) and if the Cowboys are still America's team.  Please report on things that affect those you should be serving and things that are going on right under your noses. 

WHAT will the local "news" say when some big city slicker news outfit rolls into town and starts asking WHY no one has reported on these issues?  We can't wait to hear. 

Neither can Durango.

I still have not seen any mention made in the Star-Telegram of the fact that the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's flood control project's first completed project, the Cowtown Wakepark, was severely damaged in the first flood of the Trinity River since its completion.

Of course it's not just our local media making a mockery out of themselves, national media was just put in its place by none other than Miss Piggy.  Here's hoping she also comes to see us in Cowtown soon. 

Anyway, during a news conference last week for the U.K. premiere of "The Muppets," Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy were asked about a December segment on Eric Bolling's "Follow the Money" that posed the question, "Are Liberals Trying to Brainwash Your Kids Against Capitalism?" One guest on the segment blasted the Muppets movie, which makes an oil executive (played by Chris Cooper) its villain.

Piggy said of the segment: "It's almost as laughable as accusing Fox News as, you know, being news."

Read More

The Pirates are Coming

Oh wait, they're already here.  They are throwing the Party in Fort Worth this year. They even put a rig with their flag on the invitation. 

The Fort Worth Promotion and Development Fund throws this party every year with a theme and a sponsor.  Radio Shack hosted the River of Dreams back in 2006, highlighting the Trinity River. Mayor Moncrief asked Chesapeake to sponsor 2012 before his reign was over. 

The purpose of this group is basically to "promote" Fort Worth to national media. Where is the group promoting the citizens?  Those who should be will be at the party.

The Fort Worth City Council will be Honorary chairs.  At up to $25,000 a table (that level does come with parking, there are other options in the thousands that do not) WHAT is that costing us?

We noticed many familiar names on the "list".  The circle of Fort Worth.

We noticed an unofficial list too, looks like Durango will be in attendance, maybe it will be THE Party in Fort Worth after all.

Read More

"People deserve to know that kind of stuff."

Almost three years ago, we started this blog due to the lack of news we were seeing on the "news".

(There are several stories taking place in Tarrant County right now, that none of the "news" stations have reported on. WHY?)

So due to lack of "news" we decided to do something, so did Grant Stinchfield.  Here's an article on WHY Grant left "news" reporting to run for office. 

There are still reporters left in the county.  They just don't work for the "news".

Kudos, Grant! 

Here is an excerpt of what Stinchfield had to say regarding a tip he started investigating  about government spending:   “When Cowboys Stadium  was being built….General Motors, getting bailed out by the federal government,  wants to buy a suite at Cowboys stadium….a million $ plus for that suite.  I make a call, and as a good conversative I say GM shouldn’t be buying a suite with taxpayer dollars.   20 minutes later I get hauled into the general manager’s office telling me, you will not make another call on that story. ” Stinchfield says the general manager didn’t want to “rock the boat” with automotive advertisers, even though it meant not reporting on what Stinchfield felt was the inappropriate spending of taxpayer dollars.

Read More

Reporting Reporters

We love them.

We learned about this one from the Fort Worth Weekly.  

Read about Lee Morris in the Fort Worth Weekly here. Then you'll know what's wrong with the local "news".

Once a paper loses its willingness to write the truth, poke sacred cows, and point out graft and corruption, it’s dead.

So Morris wrote a scathing column about the new owner and the new policies, predicted the “end of real journalism at the Times-Record,” changed his byline, and placed the story under a vague headline so as not to attract attention.

He managed to get the story published without his overseers catching on to his one-finger salute.

Then he resigned.

Read More

Guess that answers that...

There must not be a real reporter in the whole damn country. The video is just an example of the problem with the "news". 

If there ain't any, they'll make some.  If there is some, they'll change it.

Notice what the very last word you see in the video is. WHEN are you going to wake up and protect YOUR kids? No one is going to do it for you.  WHAT are you going to say when they ask WHY you didn't?

If the "news" can sell you crap like this, what are the politicians, water districts, and gas drillers selling YOU? 

OUT.

Read More

No comment?

We received a comment from Anonymous, calling himself Thomas Payne.

Which Thomas Payne? There's a few...

Seems Mr. Payne missed the point, or the boat.  This blog was started two years ago, in part to point out the appalling lack of media coverage on real issues.  To give THE PEOPLE a voice, since it has been stripped away by greed and politicians.  In the course of those two years, we've learned not only is there a lack of coverage, there is something rotten in the "news" rooms in Tarrant County (Like the very post Payne was commenting on...ironic).  We have some more great examples on the way.  YOU won't want to miss it.  While we don't have to, we can assure you, Mr. Payne, the site was not started to "googlewash" a Fort Worth mayor candidate.  Though we did appreciate the laugh, thank you.
 
Unlike our mainstream media, our goal has always been to look out for the citizens. Their future and the future of their children.  We aren't paid to lie.  Call your local media about that one. 

We'll endorse WHO we want, when we want, how we want.  Got that?

Read More