AUSTIN, Texas – An op-ed on fracking that ran in seven or eight top newspapers across Texas, including the Rio Grande Guardian, the Austin American-Statesman and the San Antonio Express-News was not written by those who put their name to it.
The op-ed was offered to various newspapers by a public relations firm in Austin. The authors were listed as J. Ross Lacy, a city councilman in Midland, Texas, Karen Gibson, a city councilwoman in Lubbock. Texas, Clinton J. Powell, mayor of Pleasanton, Texas, and Don Tymrak, city manager of Karnes City, Texas.
However, the op-ed was in fact written on behalf of the oil and gas industry, the Austin American-Statesman reports.
“Had I been the true penned author, that’s what I would have written,” Tymrak told the newspaper.
Click here to read the Austin American-Statesman story on who really wrote the piece. Click here to read the op-ed itself.
Editor’s Note: Pictured in the photo montage accompanying this op-ed are J. Ross Lacy, a city councilman in Midland, Texas, Karen Gibson, a city councilwoman in Lubbock. Texas, Clinton J. Powell, mayor of Pleasanton, Texas, and Don Tymrak, city manager of Karnes City, Texas.
