How the Times Mined for Controversy in WV
The media used the 2006 Sago mine disaster to bash Bush, even though they had to cook the data to do it.
Make that two opportunistic rants. The next day, apparently frustrated that the fatality figures contradicted their attempted meme, and by the center-right blogswarm that shouted it down, a second Times editorial, apparently coordinated with the AFL-CIO, complained about alleged Bush budget cuts at MSHA:
But in accounting for the deaths, inspectors should look as well into the budget cutbacks and staff attrition that have marked the Bush administration’s management of its own ranks in the Mine Safety and Health Administration. The latest budget imposes a $4.9 million cut for the safety agency, according to Congressional critics who estimate that the agency has suffered a reduction of 170 positions in the past five years.
The claim that the agency’s budget had affected safety also didn’t hold up to more than a few minutes of scrutiny:
Note: The chart was copied from a since-updated version of this page at the MSHA website. The original post at BizzyBlog had summary data from 1995 and 2001-2004.
Specifically:
- EU Rota showed that spending had increased from about $250 million in fiscal 2002 to about $285 million in fiscal 2005, before being reduced to 2006’s planned amount of roughly $280 million. Even with the 2006 reduction, the increase from 2002 was 12% in four years, and was about equal to inflation during that time period.
- The 170-person drop in headcount the Times and the AFL-CIO complained about represented a reduction of only 7.2% over a five-year period.
- But there were fewer coal mines in 2005 than there were in 2001, meaning that, as long as safety was holding up and inspection procedures weren’t being compromised, having fewer people would be justified.
- The coal mine fatality rate per 200,000 hours worked went down almost 50% from 2001 to 2005, and the all-injury rate decreased 23% (the all-injury rate fell another 10% during 2006-2007).
- There was no noticeable let-up in any of the inspection-related statistics, indicating that much of the headcount reduction must have appropriately taken place in Washington instead of out in the field.
The Times simply had no justification, other than pleasing its Bush-deranged readership, for going after the administration before the Sago investigations even began. The paper’s industry-crony accusation was especially odious. Staffing safety-related positions with conscientious and industry-knowledgeable people usually leads to greater safety because of increased cooperation instead of confrontation.
Congress and the administration responded to Sago by passing the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response (MINER) Act. As would be expected after a tragedy, it included tougher enforcement and new procedures. Many other measures MSHA has taken beyond the scope of the MINER Act are at the bottom half of this MSHA page.
After two relatively unsatisfactory years, it appears that 2008 may end up being the safest year on record for all U.S. mines (including coal and metal/non-metal; picture is from this PDF file obtained at MSHA’s site):
If that pleasant result occurs, don’t expect to find news of it in the Times.
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Tom Blumer owns a training and development company based in Mason, Ohio, outside of Cincinnati. He presents personal finance-related workshops and speeches at companies, and runs BizzyBlog.com.
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11 Comments
1. BizzyBlog » Latest Pajamas Media Column (’How the Times Mined for Controversy in WV’) Is Up:[...] It’s here. [...]
Jul 4, 2008 - 3:06 am 2. Don:The shame of the NY Times is that at one point in history it was the most respected newspaper in this country (if not in the world). My father (and grandfather) worked for the Times and were always proud of that fact . . . Now? My father would not take an individual paper, nor subscription were someone to pay him to. He was proud of his affiliation with a different publication (with the same masthead), he is shamed by what it has become. The Times sold it’s soul to become not a political “conscience” but a direct participant in the re-education of the masses. The Dwarf Prince (”Pinch” Sulzberger) has destroyed whatever credibility his paper had (with independent thinkers) for broad thinking editorials and hard nosed accuracy in it’s reportage. He’s sacrificed all of this to be more of a agitprop organ for the “progressives” (”if the facts don’t fit the agenda change them to fit it”).
All the news thats fit to print? More like “make all the news fit the agenda”.
Jul 4, 2008 - 6:31 am 3. Rubicon:Obviously, this is but another of the now incredibly long list of reprehensible attempts by the New York Times to affect public policy with information that does not reflect the truth.
Jul 4, 2008 - 11:49 am 4. aloysiusmiller:Free speech should also require there to be truth in that speech for media publications that wish to reach out & affect public attitudes by using convoluted information. Especially when that speech is designed to deliberately affect the safety and security of an entire nation by pushing public perception into believing the pathetically failed concept of socialism!
Isn’t it interesting that if a conservative cumulates his wisdom and makes a general statement, how the left jumps all over it with exceptions nuances and accusations of stereotyping etc. but then turns around and makes huge condemnations based on a sample of one.
Jul 4, 2008 - 1:29 pm 5. Javelin:I’m sure Mr. Blumer frets all night about the plight of coal miners so that’s why he felt he had to set the record straight. I’m sure he felt the same way about the Iraqi people too, so that is why he supported the Iraq War. People who are always running other people down and attacking their credibility usually need to look at themselves.
Jul 4, 2008 - 8:05 pm 6. Morrow:A real horrible editorial:
“The mine, with more than 270 safety citations in the last two years, is the latest example of how workers’ risks are balanced against company profits in an industry with pervasive political clout and patronage inroads in government regulatory agencies. Many of the Sago citations were serious enough to potentially set off accidental explosions and shaft collapses, and more than a dozen involved violations that mine operators knew about but failed to correct, according to government records.
Sadly, in the way mines are often run, the $24,000 in fines paid by the Sago managers last year constituted little more than the cost of doing business. In the Appalachian routine, miners balking at risky conditions down below can quickly forfeit their livelihood if they have no union protection.
Jul 4, 2008 - 8:14 pm 7. Javelin:”
Mr. Blumer is a two bit Bushbot who churns out cheap out dated trash like this to pander to the little minds here who think the NY Times is their mortal enemy. Keep it up Tom, but check yourself. This is really sending the MSM down the river!
This is from the Unimpeachable BizzyBlog:
“After at Least Six Years, Google Abandons Stars and Stripes in July 4 Home-Page Design”
Apparently Google went from Stars and Stripes logo to just a red white and blue logo based on their support for Obama because Obama doesn’t wear a flag pin. And the NY Times put a black and white picture of Rush on their magazine, which is part of the leftist conspiracy to destroy America and the flag according to this perceptive blogger.
And someone who writes juvenile right wing dreck like that is attacking someone else’s credibility and some people here are taking this trash seriously? Hypocrite and moron are too weak terms for this.
Jul 4, 2008 - 10:40 pm 8. Tom Blumer:Javelin I:
- I used to be a controller for a foundry. Yeah, I have an interest in blue-collar folks working safely. Imagine that. The NY Times embarrassed itself and had its hat handed to it.
Morrow:
- Your contentions must be why fatalities fell in the previous 4 years, injuries have kept falling, and are way down from the “glory days” of the 1990s, even after considering reductions in number of mines and miners. (/sarc). The NYT sent itself down the shaft on this one.
- My original post in Jan. 2006 said that if the Sago operators were out of line, the book should be thrown at ‘em. Your failure to note that makes your comment a cheap shot.
Javelin II:
- The post to which you refer was speculation, which is allowed, last time I checked, and which you of course misrepresented above. All of Limbaugh’s pics were in B/W, which is yet another misrepresentation. And you also missed how CNN and NYT made Saddam Hussein look like such a great guy when he got his just desserts, which it yet another misrepresentation. Can’t you get anything right?
Keep on firing blanks, guys.
Jul 5, 2008 - 10:12 am 9. BizzyBlog » Recalling, and Following Up On, the NYT’s 2006 Sago Opportunism:[...] This was originally published at Pajamas Media on Thursday under the title, “How the Times Mined for Controversy in [...]
Jul 6, 2008 - 9:28 am 10. misanthropicus:The Sago tragedy, the Valerie Plame bruhaha and the Deuce Martinez scandal. In all three cases NY TIMES appears exactly as what it is – a gross racket. I stopped buying it, and no one should do it.
NY TIMES is a sovereign/autocratic state with its own, uniformly & grossly opportunistic and cynical rules & policies, and the Sago tragedy is just another illustration of this fact.
I’ll remind you here NYT’s latest (a few days ago): you remember NYT huffing and puffing in the Valerie Plame affaire – mighty high-minded moralistic stuff, with much talk about the importance of confidentiality in CIA work, national interests, of why outing Valerie Plame was such a criminal & irresponsible act placing one’s career and the national safety at risk, act, etc., etc.
NY Times did 27 stories on Plame, and countless other on Liddy and Cheney, and of course the righteous indignation was always there (Plame’s name was leaked by Armitage, a Department of State guy, and he didn’t do it as a favor to the Bush administration).
And all the indignation regarding the outing of a CIA operatives vanished a few days ago when they themselves named Deuce Martinez, the interrogator who questioned Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other Al Qaeda prisoners – and mind this, Valerie Plame was never covered by the CIA confidentiality status while Deuce Martinez WAS (not anymore, courtesy to NY Times).
Jul 7, 2008 - 4:33 am 11. papers in wv:Stop buying New York Times!
[...] measurement, mine safety had improved during the Bush administration??s four years of accountabilithttp://pajamasmedia.com/blog/how-the-times-mined-for-controversy-in-wv/NewsLink NEWSPAPERS U.S. WEST VIRGINIAUpdated links to all West Virginia newspapers US from NewsLink [...]
Jul 9, 2008 - 9:22 pm