J.D. Prose – 2/13/10

This page was last updated on February 14, 2010.

Dennis the Menace II targets Marshall; J.D. Prose; Beaver County Times; February 13, 2010.

As you read this opinion column, keep in mind Mr. Prose wears at least one other hat for the Times. In addition to being an entertainer/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.

You can find the archive of my Prose column critiques here.

Mr. Prose told us “The market creates jobs, not politicians, Marshall said, and blaming him for poor job growth here is like blaming President Obama for the same thing on a national scale.” I noted this was not a quote, however. Whether Rep. Marshall said this or Mr. Prose made it up, it’s wrong. First, Mr. Obama has an extraordinary amount of power to affect economic policy and Mr. Marshall has little. Second, throughout his private and public life, Mr. Obama supported and continues to support the government policies and programs that got us into the current mess. I do not believe that is true for Mr. Marshall. While Mr. Marshall may have been trying not to appear partisan (I have no problem with that.) and not point fingers, it doesn’t serve him or his constituents well to make factually inaccurate statements.

As a result of Mr. Marshall’s alleged comment, Mr. Prose referred to him as “a reasonable Republican making a rational observation of the president.” In case you aren’t aware, I believe you’ll find the Prose and Times definition of “a reasonable Republican making a rational observation” is a Republican who frequently votes with lefties, frequently bashes Republicans, or says nice things about Democrats. That’s why in “Scare tactics” the Times referred to Sens. “McCain, Graham, Collins and Snowe” as “Republicans … who know better.”