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Easter Bunny brought a bowl of column jambalaya; J.D. Prose; Beaver County Times; March 30, 2013.
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 critique of portions of this column.
“We had a weird, short week, so today we’re going to make a big ol’ pot of column jambalaya and just toss in whatever bits we have lying around on the desk.
“It’ll help with our once-a-decade spring cleaning, too. Bon appetit, and happy Easter …”
[RWC] I’m glad to see Mr. Prose or his editor picked up the French spellchecker I mentioned. I’ll cut Mr. Prose some slack on the missing accent; some systems have a problem with special characters.
“l On the heels of Christiana bragging about state transparency, Democratic state Rep. Rob Matzie received some rare statewide publicity last week for calling on Attorney General Kathleen Kane and Auditor General Eugene DePasquale to investigate a no-bid contract to build and maintain websites for the state that was awarded to NICUSA by, take a guess, Corbett.
“While Corbett’s administration insisted there were no companies doing similar work, Matzie said ‘basic research turns up multiple capable vendors.’ Whoops. Some Corbett aide apparently forgot Rob has access to Google.
“Matzie even cited NICUSA’s own SEC filing, in which, he said, ‘it admits to having multiple competitors that possess ‘‘greater resources.’’’ Whoops again.
“Is it too late to drop that A- grade down a notch or two?”
[RWC] My primary comment is did Mr. Prose do any fact-checking himself or is he relying on the comments of two politicians? The secondary comment is two companies can be competitors overall without the companies having exactly the same set of products/services. For example, let’s say the BCT is a locally-owned, independent publication instead of being owned by Calkins Media, Inc. While the BCT and CNN are competitors in the “news” business, they offer different sets of products/services.
“l Ben Carson, the world-famous neurosurgeon, is the new darling of conservatives because he is black and lets them feign diversity. Unfortunately, Carson appears to be a bigot when it comes to marriage equality and shockingly oblivious to the civil-rights struggle throughout American history.”
[RWC] Dr. Carson is a tad more than a “world-famous neurosurgeon.”
Racism alert! Mr. Prose – white guy – is criticizing a black guy. Given the history of his party and ideology (a self-described “Surly progressive”), does Mr. Prose really want to write about “diversity?” Please read “Lefty race baiters,” “Democrats – The party of civil rights – not,” and “Republicans – Civil Rights.”
As for the “he is black and lets them feign diversity” comment, that’s projection on Mr. Prose’s part. According to his columns, Mr. Prose lives in Moon Township. Though I don’t know about Mr. Prose’s specific neighborhood, the Moon Twp. population is 89.8% white according to the 2010 census. And what about the location of Mr. Prose’s employer? The BCT is in Beaver, 96% white. Though I haven’t been there for about nine years, the last time I was in the BCT offices the faces I saw there didn’t exactly remind me of Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition. When I was a paperboy in the late-1960s/early-1970s, the BCT published two editions (Aliquippa and Beaver) and had an office in Aliquippa. Why did the BCT eliminate the Aliquippa edition and office? I’m sure the BCT would claim an economic reason, but was it? How do we know?
And what about Mr. Prose’s comrades/fellow travelers at Beaver County Reds (Progressive Democrats of America – PA 12th Congressional District Chapter)? The last I checked, the BC Reds management team wasn’t exactly a picture of “diversity.” All of the BCR managers I know about are white, college educated, heterosexual, not exactly spring chickens, and four of the five are male.
What the heck is “marriage equality” (ME)? (Appropriately, the background for the ME logo is red.) I suspect the lingo change means the concept of same-sex “marriage” isn’t selling as well as hoped. Is Mr. Prose actually claiming “[Dr.] Carson appears to be a bigot” because he believes marriage is between a man and a woman? If so, Mr. Carson has a lot of company. Currently, the constitutions of 26 states prohibit same-sex “marriages” and another six states prohibit same-sex “marriages” via statute. Most of these laws were passed relatively recently because the notion of same-sex “marriage” is relatively recent. Only nine states fully permit same-sex “marriages.” The remaining states have some combination. Heck, even California TWICE passed a proposition stating “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” After a state court ruled the 2000 proposition (Prop. 22) violated the CA Constitution, voters enacted Proposition 8 which made the proposition a constitutional amendment which meant the state courts could not rule it unconstitutional.
Marriage is about a man and a woman and has been a foundation of human civilization for thousands of years. If you want something similar for same-sex couples, whether both partners are homosexual or not, call it something else.
Not all homosexuals support same-sex “marriage.” Are they bigots as well? Was President Obama a bigot until he flip-flopped last year during his election campaign? Was Hillary Clinton a bigot until she flip-flopped a couple of weeks ago?
If you think this segment of the Prose column is really about his passionate support of “marriage equality,” you would be wrong. Since January 1, 2007, Mr. Prose has written at least 276 op-ed columns for the BCT. Before this piece, the only time Mr. Prose mentioned “marriage” of any kind was 21 months ago as an item in a laundry list of alleged GOP policies he didn’t like. With a record like that, it’s safe to say Mr. Prose doesn’t lose any sleep worrying about same-sex “marriage.” Heck, in the anonymity/privacy of a voting booth, Mr. Prose might even vote against same-sex “marriage.”
The left’s attack on Mr. Carson is about attempting to tear down a man who chose not to live on the lefty plantation yet became successful. As tough as lefties are against conservatives in general, have you noticed they are especially vicious when it comes to conservatives who belong to the left’s “victim” groups? That’s because the left considers these people to be heretics with respect to the religion of leftism. The nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court is another example. So is the treatment of conservative and Republican women. “Why is this?” you may ask. The answer is simple. When a person in a victim group is successful without adhering to leftist dogma, it lays bare the lie of leftist policies/programs for all to see.
“On Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, Carson said this: ‘No group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality, it doesn’t matter what they are. They don’t get to change the definition. … So, it’s not something against gays. It’s against anybody who wants to come along and change the fundamental definitions of pillars of society. It has significant ramifications.’
“Yep, Carson lumps gays and lesbians seeking marriage equality to pedophiles and sex-with-animals supporters. That’s not vile and insulting at all.”
[RWC] I don’t use the term “gay” myself, but aren’t lesbians “gay?” If so, why write “gays and lesbians?”
I’m glad Mr. Prose agreed Mr. Carson’s comment wasn’t “vile and insulting.” Perhaps there’s hope yet for Mr. Prose. <g> Note: Language that works when spoken in person doesn’t always work when written.
Mr. Carson explained himself the day before the BCT published this column. Funny how Mr. Prose forgot to mention that fact, isn’t it?
“Worse, yet, is that the unbelievably gifted Carson seems to not understand that HE is one of the ‘significant ramifications’ of Martin L. King Jr. and Rosa Parks and Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman and so many others changing the ‘fundamental definitions of pillars of society.’ We doubt Hannity noted the irony, either.”
[RWC] Mr. Prose must be thinking of Mr. Obama. If you’re familiar with his background, Mr. Obama never went wanting a day in his life.
In contrast, Mr. Carson and his older brother were raised by a poor, single mother (a third-grade dropout and nearly illiterate) in inner-city Detroit. Does Mr. Prose really want to “credit” “Martin L. King Jr. and Rosa Parks and Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman” for the Carson family’s plight when Mr. Carson was a kid?
© 2004-2013 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.
