J.D. Prose – 7/14/13

This page was last updated on July 16, 2013.

Corbett’s now a parody of a viable candidate; J.D. Prose; Beaver County Times; July 14, 2013.

In the print edition, this column appeared in the op-ed section labeled “ON THE LEFT.” Given Mr. Prose’s body of work and the BCT’s left-leaning positions, did the BCT really think readers didn’t know he’s a “Surly progressive?”

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.

“It’s gotten to the point now where we’re convinced Gov. Tom Corbett escaped to a tropical island to live out his life in peaceful obscurity while allowing his bumbling long-lost twin brother to take over the governor’s duties.”

[RWC] Whoever came up with the column title pretty much teed up a golf ball aimed at Mr. Prose’s glass house.

“Sound wacky? Hey, it makes as much sense as anything because the proverbial wheels are coming off the Corbett Express faster than you can say, ‘One-term Tom!’

“Corbett’s latest foray into ridiculousness happened July 4 during an appearance on a radio show in Philadelphia. Our Guv’nah bad-mouthed Wendell Young IV, the president of the state liquor store employees union who fought to defeat Corbett’s privatization plans, but when Young called in to defend himself, Courageous Tom refused to talk to him.”

[RWC] Mr. Prose has his usual problems with the facts. The show appearance was on July 3rd, not July 4th.

“Why? Philly.com reported that show host Dom Giordano said Corbett ‘was upset about Young ‘giving someone the finger’ during the legislative process.’ Hmmm. Well, that sounds almost ... What’s that? Oh, that never happened. It actually refers to an April Fools’ Day parody item posted by PoliticsPa.com? Ah. Let the mockery commence!!

“That’s right. Our venerable governor is so on top of things that he refused to speak to the man he was publicly bashing because of a fake comedic post on April Fools’ Day. Guess Corbett wasn’t tipped off when the website also ‘reported’ that day that he had, in the words of Philly.com, ‘nominated a potted plant for a vacancy on the state Supreme Court.’”

[RWC] It’s unclear to me the story Mr. Prose presented is true. It appears Mr. Prose’s source was an opinion column written by a Philly.com pundit (Chris Brennan) and reproduced on the PA Democratic Party website. If you take the time to read the Brennan column AND listen to the referenced Youtube recording (only 61 seconds), you find the article and the show’s audio don’t tell the same story. The same is true for the full recording (about 40 minutes) of the show.

As for Mr. Giordano’s alleged comments, it’s not clear where they came from. Mr. Brennan neither claimed he spoke with Mr. Giordano nor provided the source of his info if it wasn’t Mr. Giordano. At the time I wrote this critique, all of the Google hits I got on this subject eventually went back to the Brennan piece as the ultimate source. I don’t know if Mr. Brennan was sloppy in not clearly citing his sources or if he made up the story.

Mr. Prose didn’t tell readers whether or not he attempted to verify the Brennan claims.

…

“POTPOURRI

“Congratulations to Attorney General Kathleen Kane for announcing that she won’t defend the state’s law banning same-sex marriage from a legal challenge in federal court.”

[RWC] I’m sure it’s an honest oversight, but Mr. Prose failed to mention the party affiliation of Democrat AG Kane. I wonder why.

Another “error” is referring to “same-sex marriage.” Though an incorrect description, good lefties refer to “gay marriage.”

“Kane, who backs SSM, said she can’t defend the constitutionality of a law she thinks is unconstitutional, leaving it up to, yes, Corbett, who, of course, opposes SSM, to defend it in court.”

[RWC] Update of 7/16/13: Here’s something else Mr. Prose failed to mention about Mrs. Kane. During the 2012 primary campaign, the Philadelphia Enquirer (PE) interviewed Mrs. Kane and her Democrat opponent Patrick Murphy. According to PoliticsPA.com, both Mrs. Kane and Mr. Murphy expressed opposition to a law. Mr. Murphy took it one step further and said, “I would not enforce that bill. It is unconstitutional. It is that egregious.” Apparently not to be outdone, Mrs. Kane then said, “In and of itself, that bill is unenforceable. It is a disgusting bill. It should never make its way out of the legislature. And if elected Attorney General, there is no possible way that that bill could be enforced, and nor will it because it is a violation of constitutional rights.”

Here’s the problem for Mrs. Kane; the law enforcement position she took in the PE interview was the exact opposite of what she said in a previous interview. During a previous appearance (3/27/12) on the Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN), Mrs. Kane said, “The Attorney General does not have the right to pick and choose which laws he or she enforces. The attorney general’s office by law is an independent agency. You need to make sure you enforce the laws or else you are just playing politics.”

Here’s the problem for Mr. Prose. Mr. Prose is predominantly a political pundit and, as we saw in this piece’s first topic, he uses PoliticsPA.com as an info source. Are we to believe Mr. Prose didn’t know about Mrs. Kane’s conflicting positions on law enforcement? I was born at night (really), but not last night. To defend Mrs. Kane, someone will probably argue enforcing a law differs from defending a law in court. While true, I doubt politicians like Mrs. Kane would draw that distinction unless they felt it was smart politically.

“No decision from Corbett yet on what he’ll do, but we’re guessing he’ll keep digging his political grave and waste taxpayer money by defending the indefensible. Anyone care to bet against that?”

[RWC] It’s pretty bad when defending the current and traditional definition of marriage is “digging [a] political grave and wast[ing] taxpayer money.” When did defining marriage to be one man plus one woman become “indefensible?”

If we’re on the slippery slope of redefining marriage, it may be time for government to get out of the marriage business completely and leave it in the realm of a religious practice. All government has to do is remove any mention of marriage from our laws and regulations. For example, no marriage licenses, no performing marriages, no special (good or bad) tax treatment (everyone’s an individual), and so on.

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Embattled Democratic [sic] state Rep. Jesse White tells us that he won’t resign in the aftermath of his online anonymous commenting scandal.”

[RWC] Mr. Prose continues to soft-pedal his coverage of “Friend of the Column” and “good buddy” State Rep. Jesse White (D-46).

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