The immense influence that corporations and special interests hold over government policy-making was on full display recently after billionaire oil tycoon Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources, arrogantly demanded that certain researchers from the University of Oklahoma be fired simply because he doesn't like the truths they're uncovering about natural gas hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." The researchers Hamm wants to see axed didn't engage in any misconduct or wrongdoing that would justify their dismissal; they merely conducted research showing that natural gas fracking is contributing to the recent rise in earthquakes in Oklahoma and other typically seismically inactive areas.