Truth, Perception and the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone

Biologist T. H. Huxley once opined that “all truth, in the long run, is only common sense clarified.”  Therefore, it was with considerable interest that I opened up a story this morning that came across my "Gulf of Mexico dead zone" RSS feed entitled "The Truth About the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone," and posted on July 6 on the Renewable Energy World web site by "sdreyer" of Growth Energy.  Growth Energy is a self-described "coalition of U.S. ethanol supporters" based here in Washington, DC.  The Growth Energy story seemed particularly relevant in light of another story that made the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, also on July 6, that was headlined "Dead zone in gulf linked to ethanol production."  
I've read both stories now.  Each twice.  In the style of any well-written journalistic piece, the second article meets Huxley's clarified common sense test.  The former does not.  It can charitably be described as partial facts combined in illogical sequences to reach ill-founded conclusions.  Rather than reflecting common sense, clarified, the "Truth About the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone" appears to have been crafted following the philosophy of Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass: "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean."
Growth Energy's web site states that it is a group "committed to the promise of agriculture and growing America’s economy through cleaner, greener energy," a laudable goal and one that many, including myself, could readily espouse.  But open dialogue based upon truth is central to engaging all parties in the active pursuit of any objective, including that of Growth Energy's.  History has taught us that such open, honest, truthful dialogue can result in a collective wisdom founded upon mutually agreed-upon interests that reach value-driven goals.    And social science teaches that it is only the values that a group holds in common that will ultimately bind and drive a group toward a goal.
Opinions are a valuable and values-reflecting element of any human interaction.  However, views based on partial, ill-construed truths such as those put forth in "The Truth" opinion piece over time only serve to increase the intensity and depth of barriers already existing among parties or even raise barriers where none existed to begin with.  Opinions and the values they reflect should be well-founded upon truth that is, in the long run, common sense, clarified.  Not facts gone awry.