J.D. Prose – 3/14/10

This page was last updated on March 15, 2010.

At GOP dinner, notes from The Resistance; J.D. Prose; Beaver County Times; March 14, 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.

This column is pretty much one unconnected “thought” after another so I’ll just address a subset.

· For his sake, I hope Mr. Prose was referring to the Republicans as “The Resistance” in the column title. You see, Mr. Prose’s guys are in power so he can’t be “The Resistance.”

· Mr. Prose wrote he hadn’t “seen that much pasty white skin in one place since …” This reminded me of former DNC chairman Howard Dean when he said, “You think the RNC could get this many people of color into a single room? Maybe if they got the hotel staff in there.” Though Mr. Dean was trying to insult Republicans, all he did was stereotype “people of color” as servants. At least Mr. Prose didn’t go as far as his fellow traveler.

· Mr. Prose referred to “ultra-conservative U.S. Senate candidate Pat Toomey,” but never told us which principles and positions define an “ultra-conservative.”

· Mr. Prose wrote, “Read our story from Friday [“Toomey blasts Obama”] if you want detailed objectivity.” That’s right, folks, Mr. Prose is once again serving as both “reporter” and pundit on the same story. I wonder which piece Mr. Prose outlined first.

Finally, I’ve been opining for quite awhile that “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.” I now have some loose confirmation. Commenting on this column on the Times website, ProudConservative commented, “I would have loved to have met you so you could hear some of my witticisms regarding the ‘articles you write to get things stirred up’ [my emphasis] (I believe that’s what you said last time I emailed you regarding a ridiculous column you wrote about the 2008 elections).”