By our count, The New York Times has produced nine separate stories since last February under its continuing “Drilling Down” series — all intended to cast a jaundiced eye on natural gas, especially in the Northeast where so much of the Times’ readership resides. As part of that series, the Times has quoted dozens of sources of varying levels of expertise and credibility to manufacture a broader thesis that’s antithetical to development — along the way, conjuring up specters of air and water ruined, mortgages denied, and “Ponzi schemes” coming at us from every angle, all while doing its level-best to outright ignore the obvious and increasingly significant benefits that resource development is making possible for communities that would otherwise in this economy be on the ropes.

Well, it’d be easy to write it all off as the Times just being the Times – but is there more to it?  Well, yes, there is.  Our research indicates that The New York Times, and reporter Ian Urbina in particular, is borrowing many of its sources and much of its research from a $315-million organization whose explicit goal is to stop natural gas development anywhere it’s being considered.  It’s called the Park Foundation, an Ithaca-based foundation that has effectively created “an army” of anti-shale activists, according to its executive director.  Interestingly, Park hasn’t yet been mentioned in any of the Times’ stories on natural gas. After the jump, we go ahead and try to connect some of those dots ourselves.   read more…