An appearance on NPR's Diane Rhem's Show apparently isn't good enough for "Cape Wind" co-author, Wendy Williams, and self assigned book promoter, CapeCodToday.com, an on-line Cape Cod privately run website owned by former news reporter, Walter Brooks.
For the past week Brooks, a single-minded supporter and promoter of the Cape Wind project, has written numerous outraged articles, solicited angry letters from pro-Cape Wind supporters, invented what he calls "a windstorm of protest" and made phone calls to NPR's WGHB in Boston , the parent company of its local affiliate WCAI, in an attempt to embarrass and bully them into promoting the "Cape Wind" book on air.
As the Church Lady would say "How Conveenient".
Brooks claims "The alleged boycott of a book is a incredibly embarrassing accusation against an institution with a reputation for fighting for freedom of speech and open government."
Yet, his site, capecodtoday.com regularly censors its readers and bloggers, provides only one-sided news articles in favor of Cape Wind, deletes, admonishes, alters comments, suppresses open debate and either threatens to or out rightly bans people for exercising that same freedom of speech with regards to public comments on Cape Wind project.
Is it possible that the "Cape Wind" book just isn't that good?
A check in with Border's Books on the Cape reveals no one is buying the book.
According to Broadcast Director, Steve Young, and others at the stations, they only just received a copy the book and hadn't made up their minds yet about it but he added "WCAI has already aired an hour-long interview with the book's authors on Monday, May 7 during the Diane Rehm Show". Additionally, WCAI has covered many stories on the issue, over the past six years, since the Cape Wind project was first was announced.
Since when does a radio station have the obligation to promote any book?
I listened to Diane Rhem's NPR interview with Wendy Williams. It's a gem.
Ms. Williams claims "It was not intentional that I followed the Cape Wind story."
Yet, somehow she managed to wind up with an assignment from an international wind industry news magazine, Windpower Monthly, to write about the project.
"How conveenient."
In order to gather information for her 'scientific' report Ms. Williams slipped herself into society cocktail parties, sat in the back of the room taking notes at oppositional meetings and eavesdropped on conversations at exclusive country club fund-raisers and public hearings, preferring to mingle with and sit next to the well funded opposition, whom she characterizes as the rich who only care about their view, rather than the local fishermen, lower and middle class residents and working people of the Cape who also vehemently oppose the project.
I guess that is because she decided the average Cape Codder is too ignorant to know anything about it. If they did, surely they would support what she describes in her 'unbiased' fashion an 'incredibly imaginative ambitious project".
"It seemed to me as of from the beginning" say Ms. Williams "some local people, but not all, some local people had made up their minds that they did not want the project."
"We attended meetings in which people had decided to oppose the project long before the developer had actually filed a proposal. The decision was made in the minds of some before they understood what the technology was, or before they knew very much about who the proponent was, or before they understood much about how the electric grid functions."
Ms. Williams obviously prefers Cape Wind spin to public opinion and their right to object to a project they see as damaging to their community and public resources while conveniently ignoring science, facts and available data.
In an outlandish response to, on-call guest, fisherman Captain Ed Barrett's statement:
"It’s an area that’s very important to fisheries. It’s an area that has natural habitat, it’s has natural structure. It’s an area where a lot of species come to spawn, to forage, to seek protection, and I think any time you start proposing putting 130-40 foot story structures up in an area, in a small area like that with a tight grid as they’re doing, then I think you have to look at the effects that it’s going to have on the marine resources."
Ms. Williams denied there is any fishing in the Nantucket Sound.
"Some people have said that there is a substantial amount of fishing in Nantucket Sound. On the other hand, many people have told me that there is not a substantial amount of fishing in Nantucket Sound. I’m a science journalist, and what I do when a scientist tells me something, and I say, “That’s interesting, can you hand me the documents, and I’ll call you after I read them.” For five years I have been told there is a lot of fishing in Nantucket Sound. I walk there a lot. I don’t see the boats. I’ve asked for the documents, and the documents have never been given to me."
To which Captain Barrett responds:
"I’m in utter disbelief actually that someone could actually say that. There are very specific statistics from the Division of Marine Fisheries that would point to the amount of fishing that does exist. The two important fisheries for mobile gear are squid and fluke. And for squid season, we generally harvest little under 2 million pounds of squid, for fluke season last year’s quota was 1.1 million. Those are species that are caught by day boats, that are caught from harbors such as Woods Hole, Haines, Nantucket, Chatham. There are a substantial amount of fishery -- fishing for sea bass, that’s another -- striped bass. These are all very important species for the State of Massachusetts and they’re (those species are) managed through the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. Those statistics are readily available."
Ms. Williams defends:
"I’ve asked Ed for those documents for five years and he hasn’t given them to me."
Why ask a fisherman? Why not go to the source of the data, the State of MA Division of Marine Fisheries and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council? Could it possibly be because Ms. Williams would prefer not to directly receive the scientific data and documents in support of the amount of fishing in the Nantucket Sound?
"How Conveenient."
Originally, "Cape Wind wanted to put 170" (now 130 turbines over 40 stories tall industrial wind power plant with a 100 ft high electrical transformer platform spread out over twenty-five sq. miles) "wind turbines in the middle of Nantucket Sound." Ms. Williams said.
"The developer says it was chosen because he feels that is the best location for the project. The water on the Horseshoe Shoal, which is where these would be built, is quite shallow. It’s very shallow. And he would like to... at this point offshore wind has only been developed in somewhat shallow waters. The technology to develop these projects in deeper waters does not yet exist. It might exist in the future, but it’s not available now."
For a science writer, Wendy Williams seems not to be one to do the research. The technology for deep water wind power is well known and producing electricity off the coast of Scotland.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., also on call for the show, states:
"The Horseshoe Shoal" proposed area of the Nantucket Sound for the Cape Wind project "is 63 percent of the catch for the fishermen of Menemsha, Chatham, Haines, and a couple of other communities come from there. Well, many of these families believe they will be put out of business because of this project. And all we’ve said to Jim Gordon (developer of the project) is let’s move it farther offshore.”
“You know, that’s what they’re doing in Europe. They have deepwater projects now operating in Europe and they have many, many more planned."
Obviously, Ms. Williams didn't go to Mr. Kennedy for the science and facts since the Kennedy Family is one of the many Cape Cod families she bashes in her book, characterizing them and the oppostion as wealthy, non reputable, biased, self serving industry moguls, while at the same time idealizing wealthy industrial developer, Jim Gordon of Cape Wind as a self-made man, an honest underdog, politically naïve, straight-forward and determined.
Of course Ms. Williams makes no mention of Gordon's recent proposal of a dirty fossil fuel burning industrial diesel power plant for the already heavily polluted community of Chelsea MA.
The fact is Wendy Williams would be hard-pressed to find anyone in this country that knows more, has sacrificed more, worked harder and more tirelessly for the environment than life-long naturalist and envrionmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is an avid outdoorsman, senior attorney for the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), chief prosecuting attorney for Riverkeeper and President of Waterkeeper Alliance.
His uncle, Sen. Edward Kennedy has been promoting the Nantucket Sound as a national marine sanctuary for nearly thirty years, way before a project like Cape Wind was even a twinkling in a developer's eye and pocketbook. Now he is being called a selfish NIMBY for continuing to protect it.
Instead, Ms. Williams relies on an industrial developer for her 'facts'.
The interview ended with Ms. Williams charge that the opposition to the Cape Wind project is "a very, very wealth group, basically a team to take over a public process".
How ironic that she ignores the fact that the developer of Cape Wind is attempting to take over a public waterway for his own personal gain and stands to make billions in public subsidy and tax incentives for something the affected public does not want nor have they asked for.
"And here is another example. This is a public trust water. It’s one of the most heavily utilized public trust resources in North America. There is up to four million people a year who use this resource."
Not only has the public objected to it, but the towns, all three airports and passenger ferries (for reasons of public safety), toursim boards, commercial fishing organizations and conservation and wildlife protection groups have as well. Not one elected senator or congressman representing the Cape in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has endorsed the Cape Wind project.
Ms. Williams decries interference in the public process yet she and co-author Robert Whitcomb are doing just that with their book which failed to hear to all sides with open minds, diligently and without bias research the facts, take them into account, present them in an honest and unbiased fashion. Instead they attempt to silence valid public concerns with distortion of the facts, condemnation, avoidance, ridicule, name-calling and spin.
And they smear an entire community of good hard working citizens, they haven't even bothered to know, who have a strong sense of place, seated in democracy, to do it.
"Well, isn't that special?"
For the past week Brooks, a single-minded supporter and promoter of the Cape Wind project, has written numerous outraged articles, solicited angry letters from pro-Cape Wind supporters, invented what he calls "a windstorm of protest" and made phone calls to NPR's WGHB in Boston , the parent company of its local affiliate WCAI, in an attempt to embarrass and bully them into promoting the "Cape Wind" book on air.
As the Church Lady would say "How Conveenient".
Brooks claims "The alleged boycott of a book is a incredibly embarrassing accusation against an institution with a reputation for fighting for freedom of speech and open government."
Yet, his site, capecodtoday.com regularly censors its readers and bloggers, provides only one-sided news articles in favor of Cape Wind, deletes, admonishes, alters comments, suppresses open debate and either threatens to or out rightly bans people for exercising that same freedom of speech with regards to public comments on Cape Wind project.
Is it possible that the "Cape Wind" book just isn't that good?
Apparently, some people at WGHB and affiliate WCAI, think so. And so do readers on Cape Cod.
A check in with Border's Books on the Cape reveals no one is buying the book.
According to Broadcast Director, Steve Young, and others at the stations, they only just received a copy the book and hadn't made up their minds yet about it but he added "WCAI has already aired an hour-long interview with the book's authors on Monday, May 7 during the Diane Rehm Show". Additionally, WCAI has covered many stories on the issue, over the past six years, since the Cape Wind project was first was announced.
Since when does a radio station have the obligation to promote any book?
I listened to Diane Rhem's NPR interview with Wendy Williams. It's a gem.
Never have I read such shameless marketing and vicious finger-pointing at public opposition on behalf of a private developer than that of so-called science writer Wendy Williams and Co-author, editorialist, Robert Whitcomb in a book on any environmental subject.
And yet, Ms. Williams categorically denies she has decided whether she likes the project or is attempting to influence public opinion and decision-making, claiming she is simply reporting on the six year controversy.
Ms. Williams claims "It was not intentional that I followed the Cape Wind story."
Yet, somehow she managed to wind up with an assignment from an international wind industry news magazine, Windpower Monthly, to write about the project.
"How conveenient."
In order to gather information for her 'scientific' report Ms. Williams slipped herself into society cocktail parties, sat in the back of the room taking notes at oppositional meetings and eavesdropped on conversations at exclusive country club fund-raisers and public hearings, preferring to mingle with and sit next to the well funded opposition, whom she characterizes as the rich who only care about their view, rather than the local fishermen, lower and middle class residents and working people of the Cape who also vehemently oppose the project.
I guess that is because she decided the average Cape Codder is too ignorant to know anything about it. If they did, surely they would support what she describes in her 'unbiased' fashion an 'incredibly imaginative ambitious project".
"It seemed to me as of from the beginning" say Ms. Williams "some local people, but not all, some local people had made up their minds that they did not want the project."
"We attended meetings in which people had decided to oppose the project long before the developer had actually filed a proposal. The decision was made in the minds of some before they understood what the technology was, or before they knew very much about who the proponent was, or before they understood much about how the electric grid functions."
Ms. Williams obviously prefers Cape Wind spin to public opinion and their right to object to a project they see as damaging to their community and public resources while conveniently ignoring science, facts and available data.
In an outlandish response to, on-call guest, fisherman Captain Ed Barrett's statement:
"It’s an area that’s very important to fisheries. It’s an area that has natural habitat, it’s has natural structure. It’s an area where a lot of species come to spawn, to forage, to seek protection, and I think any time you start proposing putting 130-40 foot story structures up in an area, in a small area like that with a tight grid as they’re doing, then I think you have to look at the effects that it’s going to have on the marine resources."
Ms. Williams denied there is any fishing in the Nantucket Sound.
"Some people have said that there is a substantial amount of fishing in Nantucket Sound. On the other hand, many people have told me that there is not a substantial amount of fishing in Nantucket Sound. I’m a science journalist, and what I do when a scientist tells me something, and I say, “That’s interesting, can you hand me the documents, and I’ll call you after I read them.” For five years I have been told there is a lot of fishing in Nantucket Sound. I walk there a lot. I don’t see the boats. I’ve asked for the documents, and the documents have never been given to me."
To which Captain Barrett responds:
"I’m in utter disbelief actually that someone could actually say that. There are very specific statistics from the Division of Marine Fisheries that would point to the amount of fishing that does exist. The two important fisheries for mobile gear are squid and fluke. And for squid season, we generally harvest little under 2 million pounds of squid, for fluke season last year’s quota was 1.1 million. Those are species that are caught by day boats, that are caught from harbors such as Woods Hole, Haines, Nantucket, Chatham. There are a substantial amount of fishery -- fishing for sea bass, that’s another -- striped bass. These are all very important species for the State of Massachusetts and they’re (those species are) managed through the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. Those statistics are readily available."
Ms. Williams defends:
"I’ve asked Ed for those documents for five years and he hasn’t given them to me."
Why ask a fisherman? Why not go to the source of the data, the State of MA Division of Marine Fisheries and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council? Could it possibly be because Ms. Williams would prefer not to directly receive the scientific data and documents in support of the amount of fishing in the Nantucket Sound?
"How Conveenient."
Originally, "Cape Wind wanted to put 170" (now 130 turbines over 40 stories tall industrial wind power plant with a 100 ft high electrical transformer platform spread out over twenty-five sq. miles) "wind turbines in the middle of Nantucket Sound." Ms. Williams said.
"The developer says it was chosen because he feels that is the best location for the project. The water on the Horseshoe Shoal, which is where these would be built, is quite shallow. It’s very shallow. And he would like to... at this point offshore wind has only been developed in somewhat shallow waters. The technology to develop these projects in deeper waters does not yet exist. It might exist in the future, but it’s not available now."
For a science writer, Wendy Williams seems not to be one to do the research. The technology for deep water wind power is well known and producing electricity off the coast of Scotland.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., also on call for the show, states:
"The Horseshoe Shoal" proposed area of the Nantucket Sound for the Cape Wind project "is 63 percent of the catch for the fishermen of Menemsha, Chatham, Haines, and a couple of other communities come from there. Well, many of these families believe they will be put out of business because of this project. And all we’ve said to Jim Gordon (developer of the project) is let’s move it farther offshore.”
“You know, that’s what they’re doing in Europe. They have deepwater projects now operating in Europe and they have many, many more planned."
"And let’s put this offshore where it’s not going to harm the fishermen who are so much a part of the culture and the economy of our region. There is many places like Chatham, like Menemsha, and like Haines where the entire character of the communities are built around the commercial fishery. These are fisheries that’s 350 years old. Let’s not steal their most valuable resource and turn it over to an industrialist so that he can make money and put these people out of business."
Obviously, Ms. Williams didn't go to Mr. Kennedy for the science and facts since the Kennedy Family is one of the many Cape Cod families she bashes in her book, characterizing them and the oppostion as wealthy, non reputable, biased, self serving industry moguls, while at the same time idealizing wealthy industrial developer, Jim Gordon of Cape Wind as a self-made man, an honest underdog, politically naïve, straight-forward and determined.
Of course Ms. Williams makes no mention of Gordon's recent proposal of a dirty fossil fuel burning industrial diesel power plant for the already heavily polluted community of Chelsea MA.
The fact is Wendy Williams would be hard-pressed to find anyone in this country that knows more, has sacrificed more, worked harder and more tirelessly for the environment than life-long naturalist and envrionmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is an avid outdoorsman, senior attorney for the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), chief prosecuting attorney for Riverkeeper and President of Waterkeeper Alliance.
His uncle, Sen. Edward Kennedy has been promoting the Nantucket Sound as a national marine sanctuary for nearly thirty years, way before a project like Cape Wind was even a twinkling in a developer's eye and pocketbook. Now he is being called a selfish NIMBY for continuing to protect it.
And Senator Kennedy is advocating a comprehensive national policy on the siting of offshore wind farms since one has yet to be developed.
Instead, Ms. Williams relies on an industrial developer for her 'facts'.
The interview ended with Ms. Williams charge that the opposition to the Cape Wind project is "a very, very wealth group, basically a team to take over a public process".
How ironic that she ignores the fact that the developer of Cape Wind is attempting to take over a public waterway for his own personal gain and stands to make billions in public subsidy and tax incentives for something the affected public does not want nor have they asked for.
"Every time" Kennedy said "there is a national crisis or an international crisis, the first thing that the polluters and the industrialists say is, well, we have to sacrifice our most beautiful areas, whether it’s the ANWR or whether it’s building nuclear power plants or whatever."
"And here is another example. This is a public trust water. It’s one of the most heavily utilized public trust resources in North America. There is up to four million people a year who use this resource."
"What I’ve been fighting for 24 years is private developers who want to come and develop and steal public trust resources and privatize them. "And in this case" he added "there is very, very little democratic protection or process."
Not only has the public objected to it, but the towns, all three airports and passenger ferries (for reasons of public safety), toursim boards, commercial fishing organizations and conservation and wildlife protection groups have as well. Not one elected senator or congressman representing the Cape in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has endorsed the Cape Wind project.
Ms. Williams decries interference in the public process yet she and co-author Robert Whitcomb are doing just that with their book which failed to hear to all sides with open minds, diligently and without bias research the facts, take them into account, present them in an honest and unbiased fashion. Instead they attempt to silence valid public concerns with distortion of the facts, condemnation, avoidance, ridicule, name-calling and spin.
And they smear an entire community of good hard working citizens, they haven't even bothered to know, who have a strong sense of place, seated in democracy, to do it.
"Well, isn't that special?"