Seattle Paper Readying Hit Piece

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer will shortly publish what will be a typical MSM hit piece on innovative approaches to environmental issues. And since it's a hit piece, we can expect it to be picked up by other biased-left papers (i.e., nearly all of them).

The article will cover Habitat Conservation Plans, or HCPs, under which landowners contribute rich habitat areas for preservation in return for deveopment rights on lower quality habitat. Moderate environmentalists like the plans because they work to protect species; radicals hate them because developers benefit from them.

A colleague of mine talked to the reporter several months ago and suggested that he speak to knowledgeable environmentalists who have actually worked on HCPs and support them. The three sources he provided to the reporter subsequently confirmed that the reporter had not called them. One of the sources called the reporter himself, and said it appeared that the story was already written and would not be altered.

The article apparently will cite an old, discredited study and claim that HCPs are just back room deals that don't provide for public participation, which is not an accurate characterization. Some small HCPs may be negotiated largely in private but they are reviewed publicly. Large scale HCPs are typically negotiated in public.

What's the motivation? Endangered Species Act reform is in the air, and some of that reform would make HCPs easier. So of course, MSM, as the constant handmaiden of the radical environmentalists, is doing what it can to thwart significant and necessary reform.