The documentary Gasland was up for an Academy Award last night. Director Josh Fox has been writing about the gas industry's campaign against the film, which is a critical look at hydraulic fracturing, or  "fracking." That controversy found its way to the Wall Street Journal on Friday, where a story by Ben Casselman was posted that included an interesting admission.

As Press Action noted:

In the original version of the article, Casselman, who has covered the energy industry at the Journal for several years, quoted Range Resources-Appalachia director of public affairs Matt Pitzarella as saying: "We have to stop blaming documentaries and take a look in the mirror."

Obviously, "we need to look in the mirror" is not the message the industry means to send about the film. And that might explain why the quote disappeared--to be replaced, ironically enough, by an industry spokesperson declaring that they "don't want to get drowned out... We need to be able to respond objectively and accurately." Yes, let's hope the energy industry gets a chance to be heard!

So what happened? Press Action got a response, though not one that helps explain what happened:

Press Action contacted Casselman on February 26 to find out if he knew why the Range Resources spokesman's quote was removed from his article. In an e-mail response, Casselman wrote: "As a matter of policy, the Journal doesn't discuss its editorial decisions, so I can't get into details. But stories are edited all the time between editions, for all sorts of reasons (space, clarity, etc.). So it's not unusual for the early versions of a story to look different from the final version."

Perhaps a Wall Street Journal editor could provide an answer?