Take six Ohio fractivists, attach a phony group name to each, call a meeting and a new Tri-County Landowners Coalition is born to fight economic development.

It’s an old tactic that works again and again for those who oppose things; create phony groups who appear to share your views, and then write letters and hold a press conference to make it falsely appear you represent thousands. Media types fall for it every time, of course. It’s no wonder, therefore, an announcement that a Tri-County Landowners Coalition had been formed in Ohio immediately got attention here and here, for example. It’s still six people, though — six Ohio fractivists opposed to the economic development of three counties where median household incomes dropped up to 21% between 1999 and 2014.

The Tri-County Landowners Coalition claims to represent the good folks of Ashland, Holmes and Richland Counties in North Central Ohio. Six people went to a lectern a few days ago to announce they had formed the thing, five of them claiming to represent some fake group of Ohio fractivists. The names are utterly predictable, the fractivist dictionary apparently being a single page:

• Frack Free Ohio
• Hayesville Community on Fracked Gas
• Clear Fork Landowners Group
• Advocates for Local Land
• Monroe Township Landowners Coalition

Read more:

http://naturalgasnow.org/dirty-half-dozen-six-ohio-fractivists-trash-economic-development/