On Tuesday morning, it was a story about the Texas town of Cleburne, where residents wonder whether drilling for natural gas is the cause of a series of recent earthquakes.
"Natural gas recovery in the Barnett Shale involves drilling down several thousand feet and then drilling sideways thousands of feet more. Liquid is then pumped down the wells at very high pressures, which fractures the strata releasing the pockets of natural gas. Could this be causing little quakes?"
It was a mildly interesting story, but what grabbed my attention was a phrase used by the reporter, Wade Goodwyn.
"While most of rural America slowly dies on the vine,...."
I live in an Ohio village of 2800 souls, surrounded by farmland. We have quite a bit of interaction with "rural America." I was surprised and a little taken aback at the assertion that rural America is slowly dying on the vine. At 39 years old, I am actually above the median age in my little village.
Cleburne, Texas, on the other hand, is a city of 29,000. If that's rural, then what are we?
And the intelligentsia wonder why people think that NPR is biased.
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