BCT Editorial – 7/21/08

This page was last updated on July 21, 2008.

Bits and bites; Editorial; Beaver County Times; July 21, 2008.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“BIG DROP: About the only thing that has fallen more quickly than the stock market is bottled water. In the latest move against this absurdity — bottled water stands supreme when it comes to selling people something they don’t need — Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh has banned the sale or use of this product.”

[RWC] Are we now supposed to buy only those things we “need?” If that were the case, the Times itself would be gone, if for no other reason than I suspect we don’t need most of the products/services sold by Times advertisers. Without advertisers, newspapers are toast.

FOOD FIGHT: You can’t force people to adopt a healthy lifestyle. That’s why a proposal by a member of Los Angeles Council to place a moratorium on fast-food restaurants in South-Central LA should go nowhere. We’re not defending fast-food outlets. However, as one attorney pointed out, plenty of non-fast-food restaurants offer calorie-laden, fat-fueled meals. A healthy lifestyle comes down to individual choice, not government intervention.”

[RWC] “A healthy lifestyle comes down to individual choice, not government intervention?” Remember, this is the same newspaper that published at least 40 editorials since March 2005 (15 this year alone) in favor of a government-mandated smoking ban on private property.

In any case, the Times is fairly late to the party in writing about the LA proposal. BusinessWeek published an article about this proposal back in February and I referenced it in my critique of “Food fight.”

The Times also published an editorial (“Silence, please”) in favor of continuing the FCC ban on cell phone use on airplanes in flight. The reason? No, it wasn’t for potential flight safety or technical concerns. The only reason given was “Flying is stressful enough without being stuck on a four-hour flight sitting next to someone who can’t keep their mouth shut for that length of time.” Translation: Listening to someone on a cell phone annoys the editorial author(s) so let’s use the government to ban the behavior.