A Mighty Wind

Published Mar 30 2006, 07:28 PM by webteam

Here's yesterday's page 1 Boston Globe story reporting on the Massachusetts Audubon Society giving its "preliminary blessing" to the controversial wind farm project off Cape Cod. Seems solid and fair.

Now read this piece posted on the Cape Cod Times site about the same study that spends a lot more time downplaying its importance and finding people who are unhappy about its release.

Then check out this Times article reporting claims by project "foes" that British research shows the venture could interfere with radar and be a national security risk.

The Cape Cod Times's editorial page jihad against the wind farm -- which sometimes seemed to spill over into its news coverage -- was well established under the regime of former editor Cliff Schechtman, who left for Newsday last year.

Jack Coleman, a former Times reporter who was assigned to the wind farm story and who now works for a group supporting the project, wrote this damning analysis of the paper's coverage in the Providence Journal last year.

I have written about the Times coverage of the wind farm project both at the Boston Globe and for CommonWealth magazine, but really haven't paid much attention to how the paper has handled the issue recently. From the looks of this recent coverage, however, I wonder if Cape Wind is once again public enemy number one.