That headline could apply to so many Washington journalists, but today I’m referring specifically to Vanessa de la Torre of the Washington Post, who wrote:

As a Gwich’in elder, [Sarah] James has spent nearly two decades fighting off proposed oil drilling in her Alaskan homeland. Now comes her toughest battle yet: Congress is set to pass a budget bill that includes a provision allowing for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Some environmental groups argue that a limited oil supply in the Arctic’s coastal plains won’t ease U.S. dependence on foreign oil, or prices at the gas pump post-Katrina, and that development would damage one of the Earth’s last untouched lands.

It could almost be a Hollywood tale: one Native American woman struggles against injustice and capitalism with the help of the Washington Post — all it’s missing is a no-nonsense martial arts expert who cares about the environment, played by Steven Seagal. (If only Hollywood hadn’t turned so damn conservative, right?) And just like a Hollywood tale, it would be mostly made up.

The Center for Individual Freedom’s Marshall Manson reports that the Washington Post got suckered:

As the Center for Individual Freedom first revealed in a June special report called “The Caribou Con” and expanded upon today at Human Events, Sarah James “herself signed a request for proposal from oil companies to drill in the totality of Gwich’in lands” in 1984. In addition, a group of Canadian Gwich’in formed a corporation for oil exploration in 2001.
It turns out that the tribe’s motives for opposing exploration in ANWR have far less to do with preserving their native heritage and far more to do with cold, hard cash… [snip]
For the last few years, as the debate over exploration in ANWR has raged in Congress, environmental groups have turned to the Gwich’in to put a human face on their arguments. But it turns out that all of the huffing and puffing about habitat loss and the threat to the tribe was nothing more than politically motivated hysterical bluster.
And the Washington Post has bought it — again — hook, line and sinker.

The CFIF report states that “The Gwich’in actively and aggressively sought oil exploration on Gwich’in lands until it was discovered Gwich’in lands contained no oil.”

The one-way skeptics: All conservatives are liars, but Democratic Party flaks and liberal activists can pretty much be taken at their word.