On the front page of the Martinsburg Journal this morning, in large color type, the paper reported on the results of an online poll it conducted Saturday.
The poll asked a simple question — Do you support the TransCanada gas pipeline?
That’s the pipeline that TransCanada is proposing to put under the Potomac River and C&O Canal that will transport fracked gas from Pennsylvania into West Virginia, where it will be picked up by the proposed Mountaineer Gas pipeline.
TransCanada was greeted by more than 100 opponents of the pipeline last Thursday at an Open House in Hancock.
Those opposed to the pipeline in Hancock clearly outnumbered those in favor.
That’s why the front page of the Journal raised eyebrows when the paper reported that the results of the poll were 76 percent in favor of the TransCanada pipeline to 24 percent opposed.
Opponents of the poll were tracking the poll online Saturday night — and a screenshot at 10:30 pm showed the poll results at 195 votes opposed to the pipeline (75.58 percent) to only 63 votes in favor (24.42 percent).
In fact, the final total at the end of the day was 282 opposed to 64 in favor. That’s 82 percent opposed to 18 percent in favor.
A spokesperson for the Journal apologized for the error and promised to run a correction on page two of Monday’s Journal.
The Journal is a pro-fossil fuels newspaper.
On January 29, the Journal ran an editorial titled — Pipelines a Good Start to Help State.