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Don’t look now, but is Jay Paisley peaking?; J.D. Prose; Beaver County Times; September 24, 2011.
As you read this opinion column and his Twitter “tweets,” keep in mind Mr. Prose wears at least one other hat for the BCT. In addition to being an entertainer/pundit, Mr. Prose is a part-time 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? (You may recall NPR claimed it fired Juan Williams for doing exactly what Mr. Prose does.) 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.
Below is a detailed critique of portions of this column.
“We got a robo-call from Moon Area School District Friday letting parents know that students would be subjected to CIA-level brainwashing by (gasp) President Obama this week.”
[RWC] I don’t know what was said in the alleged phone call, but here’s the announcement on the Moon Area School District website. For those of you without Adobe Acrobat Reader installed, below is the announcement.
“The President of the United States, Barack Obama, will address the nation’s students on a broadcast in schools and online nationwide on Wednesday, September 28. In past speeches, President Obama encouraged students to study hard and take responsibility for their education, urging them to set goals, believe in themselves, and be authors of their own destinies. Administrators will record and view the message prior to playing it for students and staff. However, we understand that some parents may not wish to have their child view the President’s address. If this is your preference, please send a letter to your child’s principal. Alternate activities will be provided for these students. More detailed information is available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/back-to-school.” The remainder of the announcement lists showing times.
“Instead of ignoring whatever idiotic parents might worry about their impressionable progeny watching the president -- and a black one at that! (double gasp) -- MASD gives them the chance to opt their kids out.”
[RWC] As a reminder, within days of the 2008 election, Mr. Prose started peddling his position that opposition to Mr. Obama is the result of racism. A few days before that election you were guilty only of “fear and ignorance” if you didn’t “do the right thing.” Other examples of Mr. Prose pushing the racism smear are here and here. I wonder how Mr. Prose will spin Herman Cain winning the Florida GOP straw poll for president. Maybe Mr. Prose will claim Mr. Cain’s win proves Republicans are sexist.
If Mr. Prose wants a real example of racism, consider this quote of U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC): “If (former President) Bill Clinton had been in the White House and had failed to address this problem [black unemployment], we probably would be marching on the White House. There is a less-volatile reaction in the CBC because nobody wants to do anything that would empower the people who hate the president [Obama].”
“We want a list of parents who do this so we can protect our family from their stupidity. Fair’s fair, right?”
[RWC] With apologies to William Shakespeare, Mr. Prose doth protest too much, methinks. I cover the left’s projection of their bigotry on others in “Lefty race baiters.”
Perhaps some parents are concerned Mr. Obama’s speech will be little more than a campaign/political speech. Since at least last spring, Mr. Obama’s speeches have been campaign speeches, even the one he gave before a joint session of Congress. While speaking at North Carolina State University recently, Mr. Obama “urged students to help him get it [the no-jobs bill] passed through Congress.” Mr. Obama said, “For those of you who did skip class today, I’ve got a homework assignment for you. Tell your Congress person that the time for gridlock and games is over; the time for action is now.” Does anyone doubt Mr. Obama would try something similar with grade school and high school students?
Parents may also be concerned with the fact Mr. Obama has a problem telling the truth. Rather than say Mr. Obama lied in a recent speech, a newspaper came to his rescue and said “the president may have over-suggested the risk to public safety” regarding some bridges in North Carolina. If the bridges were in such disrepair, why weren’t they fixed with the 2009 “stimulus” bill? Apparently none of our crack reporters bothered to ask.
Mr. Obama doubled-down last week when he used an Ohio River bridge as a backdrop for a political speech to push his latest short-term no-jobs bill (aka American Jobs Act). Mr. Obama has multiple problems here. First, there is nothing structurally wrong with the bridge; it simply can’t handle the current volume of traffic. Second, Kentucky owns and operates the bridge, not the feds. Third, plans are already underway to add another bridge at that location but it’s nowhere near a “shovel-ready” project; construction can’t start for another three to four years. As a result, the bridge project doesn’t qualify for funding by Mr. Obama’s bill.
For more than two weeks, Mr. Obama has been constantly telling Republicans to “pass this bill now” and waves a bunch of papers he claims is his bill. What Mr. Obama and the mainstream media don’t mention is congressional Democrats have not even brought the bill up for a vote yet.
Even the AP couldn’t swallow Mr. Obama’s “misrepresentation” that “the rich” are taxed less than secretaries. I can only assume the BCT published the AP fact-check by accident.
If Mr. Prose really wants to be “fair,” perhaps he’ll publish a list of his readers who take his column seriously.
© 2004-2011 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.