J.D. Prose – 12/2/12

This page was last updated on December 3, 2012.

White’s got no home on the Range; J.D. Prose; Beaver County Times; December 2, 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.

“Today, we’re checking in on our good buddy state Rep. Jesse White, who still represents a sliver of southern Beaver County as well as parts of Allegheny and Washington counties.”

[RWC] You can find links to critiques of White pieces here.

“In case you haven’t been paying attention, White — who says he supports responsible Marcellus shale drilling — and Range Resources have been caught in a very public feud that recently boiled over when the company released past emails from White that painted him in an unflattering light.”

[RWC] I don’t know Rep. White’s definition of “responsible Marcellus shale drilling,” but it could be the same as with “clean coal.” No amount of coal emissions-cleaning will ever be enough and the goal posts will be pushed back whenever “clean coal” gets close to meeting some regulations, like Lucy pulling the football away whenever Charlie Brown tries to kick it.

“How unflattering? One of White’s grandstanding GOP House colleagues, Stan Saylor of York County, is pushing for an investigation of White, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported.”

[RWC] What was the “grandstanding?” As you’ll read below, Mr. White allegedly asked Range Resources “for a seat on a flight to the Super Bowl in Dallas.”

In mid-November, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette also reported “Stan Saylor [House Majority Whip] of York County is pushing for an investigation of White.” The BCT did not.

“White’s been a thorn in Range’s side for awhile, pounding away at the company’s work mostly in the Washington County portion of his district.

“How bad has it gotten? At one point, White wrote in a Facebook post that Range’s release of the emails forced him to take time to respond to reporters when he was driving home to see his dying grandmother, who passed away before he could get there. Oh, man.”

[RWC] Range Resources kept Mr. White from seeing “his dying grandmother?” Seriously? Then again, a campaign ad accused Mitt Romney of being responsible for a woman’s death from cancer. Who knows what some people will believe?

“Range released the emails that showed White asking for a seat on a flight to the Super Bowl in Dallas (Jesse said it was a joke) and complaining about the company not raising enough money for him (Jesse has said he never tied legislative work to fundraising).”

[RWC] Whether or not Mr. White’s request “for a seat on a flight to the Super Bowl in Dallas” was a joke, it shows he’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Readers of my work know I don’t get into name-calling, but what kind of a knucklehead in his position (He’s a three-term state rep. and an attorney.) jokes about something like this, let alone puts it in writing? “Jokes” like this rightly get politicians kicked out of office. Can you imagine the justifiable dust-up had Range Resources “joked” it had “a seat on a flight to the Super Bowl in Dallas” for Mr. White?

“A war of words between Range and White erupted with Range saying White turned from a supporter to a critic when he didn’t get what he wanted from the company. White shot back that Range was simply trying to silence his legitimate criticism and he claimed that a Range executive threatened to ‘retaliate’ against him if he didn’t stop questioning the state Department of Environmental Protection’s failure to release some water testing results.

“If all that wasn’t enough, there are robo-calls going to residents blasting White, and the industry-friendly ‘Marcellus Shale Hour’ on KDKA-AM — a paid program — gives Range and other drilling parties an unfettered soapbox. Sort of like this column.”

[RWC] Mr. Prose failed to note Mr. White appears to have “an unfettered soapbox” via his websites (here and here) and local pundit websites that appear to publish all of his pieces. For example, on November 20, 2012, a local lefty pundit site published his piece entitled “Why I Choose Not To Retaliate Against Range Resources’ Attacks.” Contrary to its title, that op-ed piece [3,000+ words, 32-paragraphs (5+ 8.5”x11” pages)] attacked Range Resources for this or that alleged transgression and attempted to convince us Mr. White is the good guy. Unrelated to this issue, you may recall Mr. White was convicted of defamation and invasion of privacy in April 2011.

“We don’t have a dog in this fight, but Jesse’s always been a straight shooter with us while Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration and the energy companies it loves haven’t exactly endeared themselves to anyone with environmental concerns.”

[RWC] This is untrue; Mr. Prose does “have a dog in this fight,” if for no other reason than Mr. White is a fellow leftist. As noted above, Mr. Prose is a self-described “Surly progressive” and this ideology currently requires opposition to all “fossil fuel” energy (because of the religion of manmade global warming) and businesses in general because most aren’t owned by the government, yet. Further, Mr. Prose’s employer (aka “oppressor” <g>) has flip-flopped on this issue but appears to have settled on Marcellus gas is bad. The BCT’s owner and operator, Calkins Media, established ShaleReporter.com to feed Calkins properties with anti-Marcellus “news” and editorial pieces.

“Come to think of it, maybe we all have a dog in this fight, whether we know it or not.”