Brownsville Herald Criticized for Permitting Factual Errors in LNG Advertising

Brownsville Herald Editor Ryan Henry

McAllen resident Scott Nicol claims that the Brownsville Herald has been less than diligent in fact checking advertising copy purchased by Annova LNG.  

In a letter to the editor, published in the YOUR VOICES section December 3, 2015, Nicol presents several factual errors in the advertisement that slipped past Brownsville Herald editor Ryan Henry.  Henry, pictured at the left, honed his craft at the Coastal Current, a weekly newspaper published every Friday to serve South Padre Island.

For those of us familiar with the workings of government in Brownsville and Cameron County, including political corruption, voter fraud, nepotism, squandering of taxpayer assets and monies, selective prosecution, etc., the Brownsville Herald's shortcomings go much deeper than misleading ads.

The concept and responsibility of a so-called free press is totally lost on the Brownsville Herald, an entity that has remained gutless and silent on nearly every major story of political corruption in our city for more than two decades.

Below is a reprint of Mr. Nicol's letter to the editor.(At least the Brownsville Herald printed this.)

Editor:  

Scott Nicol

The Brownsville Herald recently ran an advertisement from Annova LNG that trotted out a number of claims that by now everyone knows are false.  Annova stated that it would generate hundreds of millions in taxes, ignoring the fact that it is lobbying for multi-million dollar property tax breaks.

It claims that its export operations will be done "while protecting the environment," even though its industrial facility will, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department, "sever" the wildlife corridor used by the endangered ocelot.  The plant also will spew toxic chemicals and greenhouse gases.  

But the real whopper that those of us who have been actively opposing LNG in South Texas took personal offense to was this:
"Don't believe the misinformation being spread by opponents of the project, many of them from out of state."  Annova has been spreading misinformation about its economic and environmental impact for months and now it is adding to the pile of falsehoods by pretending that many of us are from out of state.  I live in the RGV and every last person I know who is active on this issue does as well.

I would challenge Annova to name just one person from out of state who is an active member of the opposition to this project.

I understand that research might be hard to do from Chicago, where Annova's parent company Excelon is headquartered, but before it makes such statements and pays to run them in the Brownsville Herald it should make some effort to see if there is any truth to them.  Likewise, the Brownsville Herald owes it to its readers to fact-check anything that appears in its newspaper.  If a snake oil salesman attempted to buy ad space for bogus cancer cure I would hope the Herald would refuse to print it.  For the same token Annova should not be allowed to buy credibility for lies that could easily be fact checked.

Scott Nicol
McAllen