A Day at The Pond

[H2O Man]

19. That is a serious issue,

and one we will be discussing with Robert.

Earlier this year, a regional television news station reported on the connection between earthquakes and hydrofracking. The top dog at one of the larger "energy" corporations in the northeast -- a man I went to school with -- called the station to complain. A couple days later, he again called the station, and requested that a reporter come to his office.

The young lady tasked with this had no idea it had to do with hydrofracking, a topic she had never reported on. The guy cornered her in his office, and was screaming threats to end his corporation's advertising. She felt threatened, and was still crying when she returned to the station.

A couple of weeks later, a local radio sports reporter asked me to be the half-time guest at one of my daughter's high school basketball games. He asked me to come to where he was sitting a bit before halftime, which I did. The reporter's cell phone rang moments after I was seated. It was this same fellow. He told the reporter -- another high school classmate -- that if he put me on the air (this was at the time of my hunger strike) that it would be the end of his career with the radio station.

The reporter offered to put me on. I was tempted to; I'd have loved to talk about the corporate attempts to silence the media. But not at the cost of my friend's job.

Earthquakes and Amendment 1 are definitely on my list of issues to discuss.