More than 20 counties in Florida have signed ordinances banning fracking, the controversial process by which water, sand, and an unnamed cocktail of chemicals are jammed into the ground in order to extract oil and natural gas. The process has been blamed for contaminating groundwater. Around the time Broward County banned fracking in February, it appeared that the state was ready to pass a ban on fracking bans, and force the practice to be allowed across all of Florida. But after environmentalists converged upon Tallahassee in protest, the bill died on March 1.

Since then, a PR rep for a group called "Vets4Energy" has sent New Times a handful of emails, asking us to publish a pro-fracking op-ed written by Vets4Energy's Florida cochair, Dennis Freytes. The story accuses Florida's environmentalists of fear-mongering and spreading disinformation in order to kill the bill.

But a quick fact-finding mission shows "Vets4Energy" is effectively a public-relations front for the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry's largest trade association, PR firm, and lobbying wing. And despite how obvious the group's oil ties are, at least four major Florida newspapers, including the Sun Sentinel and Palm Beach Post, appear to have run op-eds from the group without any mention of its funding sources.