Do you ever find it amusing when liberal newspaper reporters tear their hair out in frustration that all the Bush administration gives them is publicity, not news? If someone wants to argue that it's not a reporter's job to recycle robotically the publicity blurbs of the party in power, there is a two word retort: Bob Dart. Bob Dart of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote an article on how the House was taking up a bill to make gas price gouging a federal crime, since we face "much of the nation complaining that gas prices are the highest ever."
Dart's story featured this lineup of the notable and the quotable: Speaker Pelosi (Democrat); Rep. Bart Stupak (Democrat), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations; and Tyler Slocum energy expert with the left-wing group Public Citizen. He mentioned Sen. Maria Cantwell (Democrat) in passing. (CORRECTION: Dart's original story from the Cox News Washington Bureau also included, in paragraphs 19, 20, and 21, a statement from Marlo Lewis of the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute and a refiners' representative, but the Atlanta Journal-Constitution edited it out.)
The only non-Democrat quoted in the Journal-Constitution piece was Gary Caruso, head of the Energy Information Administration, an independent statistical agency within the Energy Department, who made a bland statement about how gas prices will remain volatile this summer.
What's wrong, Mr. Dart? No Republicans or conservatives in your cramped Rolodex?
CORRECTION: Apparently, yes, Dart was balanced enough to add a conservative press release viewpoint and a response from the oil industry. Here's the paragraphs from Cox Washington that the AJC excised:
At the hearing, though, a statement against the "Federal Price Gouging Prevention Act" was distributed by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a nonpartisan advocacy group for "the principles of free enterprise and limited government."
"If we want to go back to the gas lines of the Seventies, this is a good way to do it," said Marlo Lewis, a senior fellow at the institute. "Constraining the ability of gas companies to set prices according to supply and demand is a recipe for rationing. In the end, there will be less gas available and the people who get it will be those most prepared to wait in line."
"Legislation to curb 'price gouging' is a solution in search of a problem," said Charles T. Drevna, executive vice president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association. In another prepared statement distributed at the hearing, the head of the refinery industry trade group said dozens of federal investigations have never turned up evidence of market manipulation in the industry.
In an e-mail to NB, Dart insisted:
The AJC apparently cut this from the story, probably because of space. That happens a lot. The story also appeared in other newspapers undermybyline (apparently Tim Chapman [sic] didn't bother to check that out) and I'm sure it was longer in some and shorter in others. I can assure you that I do not like when any of my words are cut but I have no control over thestory after it leaves the bureau. Any criticisms y'all have then should be directed at the editors of the various papers. If you want to criticize my reporting, check on the wires on what the bureau sent out.
I apologize for not placing the blame on the Journal-Constitution instead of the reporter, since I have not been a regular reader/critic of the Cox newspapers. The newspaper -- but not Bob Dart -- still deserves the mockery for offering one-sided Democratic public relations.
—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
Add him to the list of unpaid
May 30, 2007 - 18:49 ET by VT Con ManAdd him to the list of unpaid dem press gabbers throughout the press. woopi.
Geesh I thought the libs woul
May 30, 2007 - 18:54 ET by jmad627Geesh I thought the libs would like high gas prices, less carbon emissions, better for the ecology, and the like. Plus there would probably be less of us rabble on the roads easing traffic so they can drive their SUV's to the airport to get them to their private jets quicker.
I thought the libs would li
May 31, 2007 - 05:54 ET by motherbeltI thought the libs would like high gas prices - jmad627
Good point, jmad.....they are the ones who used to say we should be paying as much for gas as they do in Europe. $5 a gallon or so, because it would make us conserve. So why the hollering now? My guess is because it's a way to bash Bush. If a Democrat were in the White House, they would find someone or something else to blame. I can see it now, Bill Clinton, his face tortured, his voice breaking... "I worked harder than I ever worked at anything in my life to get prices down..."
They are nothing if not inconsistent....it's easy if your principles are flexible...
Capitalism and communism both
May 31, 2007 - 11:59 ET by mulerider24Capitalism and communism both ration goods. We do it with prices; the Soviets did it by waiting in line. Which one do you think worked out in the end?
Tim, I have actually found a use for the AJC......
May 30, 2007 - 20:39 ET by Dave RIt isn't surprising that a "reporter" for the Al-Jazeera Constipation (FKA The Atlanta Urinal-Constipation) would be unable to dig up any republican, or even conservative officials to interview for a news story. Republicans and conservatives have been getting third-rate treatment at that paper for many years now. After all, the AJC is owned by Cox Enterprises, which is, in turn, owned by one of the more liberal families around.
It is odd, however, that this is essentially the same company that owns WSB Radio, not exactly a bastion of liberalism in these parts. These are also the very same people who pay Neal Boortz a confiscatory amount of money to do his radio show form that very same station. Well, I guess it isn't all that surprising. After all, they have to make money somwhere.
I stopped reading the rag about ten years ago. My 11 month-old puppy has long been house-trained, and I do not own a bird. Still, there is one use for that third-rate newspaper that almost makes its purchase worth the 50 cents one must cough up to obtain a copy.
If you are grilling and you have a charcoal chimney starter but run out of the little white firestarter cubes, just take two full sheets, wad them up and cram them into the bottom of your chimney starter. Add charcoal, light the paper, and in about 15 to 20 minutes you are ready for the meat.
Darned efficient fuel, that newspaper. Must be something in the ink. :-)
This republic will not survive the continued neglect of its people.-Neal Boortz