J. D. Prose – 11/8/09

This page was last updated on November 13, 2009.

Political Prose: Scourge of the liberals; J. D. Prose; Beaver County Times; November 8, 2009.

As you read this opinion column, keep in mind Mr. Prose wears at least one other hat for the Times. In addition to being a pundit, Mr. Prose is a reporter covering political stories. Ask yourself this. When a pundit gives his political opinions in one part of the paper, can he be trusted to report politics objectively elsewhere in the paper? After all, would a person whose opinion is 1+1 equals 3 report 1+1 really equals 2? Does he have a “Chinese wall” in his head to keep his opinions from bleeding into his reporting? If it can get worse than that, Mr. Prose has made name-calling and personal attacks a foundation of his columns. If pushed, I’d be willing to bet Mr. Prose would try to excuse his writing by claiming he’s paid to be controversial and stir debate. The problem is, you don’t need to get into name-calling and personal attacks to accomplish those goals.

Rather than subject you to the entire piece, I’ll comment on only several points.

First, Mr. Prose’s apparent man crush on Glenn Beck continues. At least four Prose columns this year have mentioned Glenn Beck complete with name-calling. Methinks Mr. Prose doth protest too much. <g>

Second, Mr. Prose continues to use the vulgar term “tea-baggers.” Please read my critique of Mr. Prose’s 9/19/09 column if you’re unfamiliar with the term’s true meaning. If I were like Mr. Prose I’d accuse him of projection.

Third, as for referring to those who allegedly made the “Third World” comment as “delusional,” perhaps Mr. Prose should read his own paper’s editorials. In the editorial entitled “Third World” (1/4/09), Mr. Prose’s employers wrote, “the United States is slowly slipping into Third World status.” “Power play” (10/29/09) said we have “a Third World power grid.” The term “Third World” has been a regular piece of hyperbole in Times editorials since at least 2005, with at least seven appearances in 2008 alone.

Fourth, if you disagree with Mr. Prose regarding a government-run healthcare monopoly, he refers to you as “angry, mean, warped people who carry signs comparing health-care reform to Nazi concentration camps.” Unless the media coverage I saw of the rally in Washington, DC, was very selective, it appears Mr. Prose made up his assertion. If it had been as Mr. Prose described, we’d have seen front-page pictures and it would have been the lead story on ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, and MSNBC newscasts. It’s funny how Mr. Prose missed the video of a wheelchair bound man getting beat up by SEIU members simply because he opposed a government-run healthcare monopoly.

Finally, the Times website “Conversation Guidelines” to “avoid foul and abusive language, and refrain from attacks on other posters or news makers” would be more credible if they also applied to Times opinion writers like Mr. Prose. For example, are we to believe neither Mr. Prose nor Times management knows what “tea-baggers” really means?

Finally #2, why does Mr. Prose constantly refer to himself in the plural (“[W]e’ll never be elected to Congress” is one example.) and in the third person?