J.D. Prose – 7/29/12

This page was last updated on July 29, 2012.

Maybe the GOP will go for UFO ID next; J.D. Prose; Beaver County Times; July 29, 2012.

According to his Twitter page, Mr. Prose is a self-described “Surly progressive.” 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.

My only comment is to point out Mr. Prose’s continued use of questionable “news” sources. This piece cited MotherJones.com, Pittsburgh City Paper, TalkingPointsMemo.com, and ThinkProgress.org, all leftist media outlets and/or think tanks.

Further, Mr. Prose isn’t the only offender at the BCT. Adding to the ever-growing list of examples is today’s story entitled “Gasbagland: Infomercial insults audience’s intelligence” by Suzie Gilbert of ShaleReporter.com, part of the BCT family. Though it’s labeled as “commentary,” the piece appears in the “news” section. According to ShaleReporter.com, Ms. Gilbert is one of “A quartet of women bloggers provides insights, investigations and commentary on how Marcellus Shale issues affect our everyday lives.”