-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Oil Drilling poll ignites digital dogfight Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 21:19:45 -0600 (CST) From: Mark Graffis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Organization: ? To: undisclosed-recipients:; Copyright © 2000 Scripps McClatchy Western Service BY DAVID WHITNEY, Nando Washington Bureau WASHINGTON (March 11, 2000 1:09 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - It means nothing - just some zeros and ones zinging their way over a fiber-optic cable somewhere to MSNBC's web site at the other end. But on Friday the kilobytes were adding up to a megabyte battle over oil development in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Internet news site posted a survey on whether its visitors thought protected areas should be opened to oil drilling. The question appeared on a web page containing news stories on the revived controversy over opening the refuge's 1.5 million-acre coastal plain to drilling. The issue arose in the Senate this week when Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski seized upon the skyrocketing price of gasoline to introduce a bill that would permit drilling in what the oil industry regards as one of the most promising unexplored corners of the continent. When word of the MSNBC survey began to spread, interest groups began sending out mass e-mail alerts to their followers urging them to log onto the web site and cast their vote for or against. "Yes, we need to end our dependency on foreign oil," was one choice. Slightly more than half of the respondents were clicking on that. "No, we can end our oil dependency by investing in alternative energy," was the second choice, and slightly half of the respondents were clicking on it. Those who couldn't make up their minds clicked on "can't decide," and 2 percent of the respondents made that choice. Joan Connell, executive producer for opinions at MSNBC in Redmond, Wash., said the results have absolutely no value to anyone for anything. "This is a self-selecting, non-scientific survey," she said. "These are not scientific polls." Still, Connell said she was amazed that the question was drawing the volume of responses, roughly three times what questions on most of the other 400 or so interactive story pages on the web site might attract. She said it may be because the broader issue, the high price of gasoline, was stirring a veritable digital storm of activity. "What this means more than anything is enthusiasm, or depth of feeling," Connell said. Frenzy is another word for it. Pro-development forces that until two weeks ago thought they'd be sitting out another year without legislation in Congress suddenly not only had a bill, they had a digital dogfight. "I sent out e-mails to my board telling them what's on the web site," confessed Cam Toohey, executive director of Arctic Power, the leading pro-development lobbying organization. E-mails spread throughout the land as recipients re-transmitted the message to others. Mike Heatwole, who works for the public relations firm of Reid/Bradley in Anchorage, said anyone who was anything probably knew about the MSNBC survey. He helped spread the message. Toohey said they learned last year that a little get-out-the-vote elbow grease can turn the corner on a tough Internet vote. When a question popped up last year on whether the Interior Department should open the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to leasing, a digital poll was going down until the pro-drillers fired up their PCs and Macs. "We sent out alerts, and the results turned around favorably," Toohey said. "We've got a lot of computers." Environmentalists scoffed at all the excitement Friday. "This is who can turn out more of their troops," sniffed Adam Kolton of the Alaska Wilderness League. "We've done real polls, and they show overwhelming support for protecting the refuge." Recent polls done for The Wilderness Society by the polling firm of Lake, Snell and Perry in Florida, New Hampshire and Texas showed that about 70 percent of the respondents somewhat or strongly opposed the federal government allowing private companies to drill for oil in the refuge, said Rindy O'Brien, vice president of the environmental group. That's not to say environmentalists would be above trying to manipulate the turnout in the MSNBC survey. In some instances, they just didn't know about it. The Wilderness Society's Alaska representative, Allen Smith, was in no position to know. He was stuck at the computer repair shop Friday, broken down on the information highway just when the speed was picking up. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soap-boxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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