BCT Editorial – 2/6/06

This page was last updated on February 6, 2006.

Salutes & Boots; Editorial; Beaver County Times; February 6, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Salute: To U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, for his decision to take a closer look at changing antitrust laws. Although the oil industry was the focus of Specter’s concern, mergers over the last two decades have created megacompanies, which might be to the detriment of consumers. He’s right. It’s not true competition when consumers’ choices are limited to two, three or four companies.”

[RWC] There’s no question it’s difficult to strike the right balance between the number of competitors in an industry and the national interest. The oil and gas industry is one of those that requires huge amounts of capital. The billions required for exploration, production, refining, and distribution tends to preclude “small” companies. We also need to remember our domestic businesses must compete with foreign companies whose areas of operations may not impose the same rules.

It’s interesting the Times apparently doesn’t worry about competition for labor unions. Does anyone want to guess what the editorial position would be on right-to-work legislation?

“Boot: To Democrats who see a political gold mine in the profits being rung up by the major oil companies. Their attempt to play the populist card shows just how far out of touch they really are. As election after election has shown, they don’t have the political skills or insight into the American psyche that is needed to manipulate the masses the way the GOP does. As a result, they come across as inept amateurs, and lose election after election after election.”

[RWC] The GOP “manipulates the masses?” How? About what? The editorial provides no examples. What the author really meant was, “The American people are no longer buying the liberal slant in the mainstream media.”

The Times can’t criticize Democrats without a “drive by” bashing of Republicans.