A breakneck pace to change West Virginia’s mining laws, and kind words from the state’s governor about the cooperation of mining officials in revamping the Mountain State's mining laws didn’t deter CNN’s Anderson Cooper from pressing for even more stringent regulation when interviewing the state'schief executive on his evening news program.
Interviewing Gov. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) via satellite in the 11 p.m. hour of the Jan. 23 edition of “Anderson Cooper 360,” the silver-haired son of Gloria Vanderbilt pressed the Democratic governor repeatedly about his position on raising the dollar amount for fines levied on coal companies.
Cooper's last incarnation of the question anticipated an adversarial relationship between mining companies and the state. “They’re going to fight this when it starts really hitting their pocketbook, aren’t they,” Cooper cynically asked.
Manchin disagreed:
“I don’t think so. I really don’t. I’ve not had that at all. There’s been total cooperation through this thing that we did and without the cooperation, we couldn’t have made this historic move that we made today.
West Virginians , the miners, their life, their family and the dedication and commitment, there's not a price tag you can put on that.”
With that, Cooper concluded the interview, smugly adding,”We'll see how long the cooperation lasts for.”
The MRC’s Free Market Project has written previously on media bias against the mining industry. The articles are accessible at freemarketproject.org and are linked below:
NBC Savidges the Mining Industry (Jan. 5)
Media Quick to Blame Industry for Mining Tragedy (Jan. 11)
